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S-XLBERT MOTIEB. BE LAFAYBTTB. 



DELIVERED AT TUB REQUEST OF BOTH HOUSE3 OP THE CONGRESS OP THE 

UNITBJD STATES, BEFORE THEM, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

WASHINGTON, ON THE 31 ST DECEMBER, 1834. 

MW JOHN QCjmC Y ADA1S, 

A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE. 



CINCINNATI! 

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY E. DEMIWG- 

1835. 






A' 






©RATION limity of theme, but to draw from the bo- 

som of the deepest conviction, thoughts 

ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF • ,. ., r - f i- i •*• »i i 

congenial to the merits winch it is thedu- 

GILBERT MOTIER DE LAFAYETTE, ty of the Discourse to unfold, and words 

_:..,.., , , , , ,. not unworthy of the diernity of the Audi- 

Delivered at the request oj both houses of before whom I appear. 

the Congress of the United Males, before , n order to form a j|lst estimate of tbe 

them, m the House of Representatives, Ufe and Character of Lafayette, it may 

Washington, on the dl»tBecember,\QU. be nece to advert not onl to the 

by John ^uincy Adams, a member of the circiImstances connected with his birth 

ouse * education and lineage, but to the politi- 

— cal condition of his country and of Great 

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and Britain, her national rival and adversary, 

House of Representatives of the U. Stales: at thc time 0l llls birth, and during his 

years of childhood. 
If the authority by which I am now call- On the sixth day of September, one 
ed to address you is one of the highest hon- thousand seven hundred and fifty seven, 
ors that could be conferred upon a citizen the hcriditary Monarch of the British Isl- 
of the Union by his countrymen, I cannot ands was a native of Germany. A rude 
dissemble to myself that it embraces at illiterate old soldier of the wars for the 
the same time one of the most arduous du- .Spanish succession ; little versed even in 
tics that could be imposed. Grateful to the language of the Nations over which 
you for the honor conferred upon me by he ruled; educated to the maxims and 
your invitation, a sentiment of irrepressi- principles of the Feudal Law; of openly 
ble and fjarful diffidence absorbs every licentious life, and of moral character far 
faculty of my soul in contemplating the from creditable: — hestyled himself, by the 
magnitude, the difficulties, and thc deli- grace of God, of Great Britain, France, 
cacy of the (ask which it has been your and Ireland, King; but there was another 
pleasure to assign to me. and real King of France, no better, per- 

I am to speak to the North American haps worse, than himself, and with whom 
States and People, assembled here in the he was then at war. — This was Louis, the 
person of their honored and confidential fifteenth of the name, great grandson of 
Lawgivers and Representatives. I am to his immediate predecessor., Louis the four- 
speak to them, by their own appointment, teenth, sometimes denominated the Great, 
upon the Life and Character of a man whose These two Kings held their thrones by the 
life was for nearly threescore years, the law of hereditary succession, variously 
history of the civilized world — of a man, modified, in France by the Roman Catho- 
of whose character, to say that it is indis- lie, and in Britainby Protestant Reformed 
Bolubly identified with the Revolution of Christianity. 

our Independence, is little more than to They were at war — chiefly for conflict 
rnark^the features of his childhood — of a ting claims to the possession of the Wcs- 
man, the personified image of self-circum- tern Wilderness of North America — a 
scribed liberty. Nor can it escape the prize, the capabilities of which are now 
most superficial observation, that, in spea- unfolding themselves with a grandeur and 
king to the fathers of the land upon the magnificence unexampled in the history 
Life and Character of LAFAYETTE, I of the world ; but of which, if the nominal 
cannot forbear to touch upon topics which possession had remained in either of the 
are yet deeply convulsing the world, both two Princes, who were staking their 
of opinion and of action. I am to walk Kingdoms upon the issue of thc strife, the- 
between burning ploughshares — to tread buffalo and the beaver, with their hunter* 
upon fires which have not yet even col- the Indian savage, would, at this day, have 
lected cinders to cover them. been, as they then were, the only inhabi- 

If, in addressing their countrymen up- tants. 
«n their most important interests, the Or- In this war, GEORGE WASHINGTON 
ators of Antiquity were accustomed to then at the age of twenty-four, was on the 
begin by supplication to their gods that side of the British German King, a youth- 
nothing unsuitable to be said or unworthy ful, but heroic combatant; and in the same 
to be heard might escape from their lips, war, the father of Lafayette wa9 on the 
how much more forcible is my obligation opposite side, exposihg his life in the heart 
to invoke the favor of Him "who touched of Germany, for the cause of the King of 
Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire," not only France. 

to extinguish in the mind every concep- On that day, the sixth of September, 
Hon unadapted to the grandeur and sub- ono thousand seven hundred and fifty-#of- 



4 

en.wns born GILBERT MOTIER DE his right hand from Lis left. Yet, strange 
LAFAYETTE, at the Castle of Chavani- as it may sound to the ear of unsophistica- 
ac.in uvergne, and a few months after ted reason, the British Nation were wed- 
his birth his father fell in the battle at ded to the belief that this act of settle- 
Miuden. ment, fixing their Crown upon the head of 

Let us here observe the influence of po- this succession of total strangers, was the 
litical institutions over the destinies and brightest and most glorious exemplifica- 
charactcrs of men. George the Second tion of their national freedom, and not 
was a German Prince, he had been made less strange, if aught in the imperfection 
King of the British Islands by the acci- of human reason could seem strange, wag 
dent of his birth; that is to say, because that deep conviction of the French Peo- 
his great grandmother had been the daugh- pie, at the same period, that t u eir chief 
ter of James the First : that great grand- glory and happiness consisted in the ve- 
mother had been married to the King of hemence of their affection for their King 
Bohemia, and her youngest daughter had because he was descended in an unbroken 
been married to the Elector of Hanover, male line of genealogy from Saint Loui6. 
George the Second's father was her son, One of the fruits of this line of beredi- 
and, when James the Second had been ex- tary succession, modified by sectarian prin- 
pelled from his throne and his country by ciples of religion was, to make the peace 
the indignation of his People, revolted a- and war, the happiness or misery of the 
gainst his tyranny, and when his two People of the British Empire, dependant 
daughters, who surceeded him, had died upon the fortunes of the Electorate of Man- 
without issue, George the First, the son over — the personal domain of their im- 
of the Electress of Hanover, bccameKing ported King. — This was a result calami- 
of Great Britain, by the settlement of an tuns alike to the People of Hanover, of 
Act of Parliament, blended together the Britain and of France; for it waso/ieof 
principle of hereditary succession with the two causes of that dreadful war then 
that of Reformed Protestant Christianity, waging between them; and as the cause, 
and the rites of the Church of England. so was this a principal theatre of that dis- 

The throne of France was occupied by astrous war. It was at Minden, in the 
virtue of the same principle of hereditary heart of the Electorate of Hanover, that 
succession, differently modified, and blen- the father of Lafavette fell, and left him 
ded with the Christianity of Rome. From an orphan, a victim to that war, and to the 
this line of succession all females were in- principle of hereditary succession from 
flexibly excluded. Loui3 the Fifteenth, which it emanated. 

at the age of six years, had become the Thus, then, it wason the 6th of Septem- 
absolute Sovereign of France, because he her, 1757, the day when Lafayette was 
was the great grandson of his immediate born. The Kings of France and Britain 
predecessor. He was of the third genera- were seated Jipon their thrones by virtue 
tion in descent from the preceding King, of the principle of hereditary succession, 
and by t' e law of primogeniture engrafted variously modified and blended with differ- 
npon that of lineal succession, did, by the ent forms of religious faith, and they were 
death of his ancestor, forthwith succeed, waging war agaiust each other, and ex- 
though in childhood, to an absolute throne, hausting the blood and treasure of their 
in preference to numerous descendants People for cause* in which neither of the 
from that same ancestor, then in the full Nations had any beneficial or lawful in- 
vigor of manhood. terest. 

The first reflection that must occur to a In this war the father of Lafayette fell 
rational being, in contemplating these in the cause of his King, but not of his 
two results of the principle of hereditary country. He was an otiicer ol an inva- 
succession, as resorted to for designating ding army, the instrument of this Sove- 
the rulers of Nations, is, that two persons reign's wanton ambition and lust of con- 
more unfit to occupy the thrones of Bri- quest. — The People of the Electorate of 
tain and of F ranee, at the time of their Hanover had done no wrong to him or his 
respective accessions, could not have been country. When his son came to an age 
found upon the face of the Globe — George capable of understanding the irreparable 
the Second, a foreigner, the son and loss that he had suffered, and to reflect up- 
graadson of foreigners, born beyond the on the causes of his father's fate, there was 
s-eas, educated in uncongenial manners, no drop of consolation mingled in the cup, 
ignorant of the Constitution, of the Laws, from the consideration that he had died 
erenofthe Language of the People over for his country. And when the youthful 
whom he was to rule; and Louis the Fif- mind was awakened to meditation upon 
t/wvntb,, an infant, inaapable of discerning the rights of Mankind, the principles *f 



Freedom, and theories of Government, it guage,are arrayed for battle on the banks of 

cannot be difficult to perceive, in the il- the stream ; and Philadelphia, where the U. 

lustrationsof his own family records, !lie States are in Congress assembled, and whence 

source of that aversion Ij hereditary rale, theip Decree n M(lt ,;)endence has gone forth, 

perhaps the ; moit % distinguished feature of IS the (] ,, stincd 12e t() the conflict of the 

his political opinions, and to which he ad- , .... *\ . .. . 

hered through all the vicissitudes of his ^\ U ho '% thit talI < Blende , r V™** of 

yr a foreign air and aspect, scarcely emerged 

In the same war, and at the same time, ? com the years of boyhood, ami (re h from the 

George Washington was armed a loyal walls of a college; fighting, a volunteer, at 

subject, in support of his king; but to him the side of Washington, bleeding, nncon- 

that was also the cause of his country, seiously to himself, and rallying hie men to 

His commission was not in the army of secure the retreat of the scattered American 

George the Second, but issued under the rankg? It |g ( ILBERT Mot:er dh Lafay- 

authoritv of the Colony ot Virginia, the „^, m „ »i „ <•». • ..• e \i- ? j 

aumuiuj ui hi / fc, , ette— the son of the victim of .Uinden ; and 

province in which he received his Lirth. , . ,, .. . . .... . 

On the borders of that province the war he is bleeding in the came of North Arnen- 

in its most horrid forms was vvaged-not a cm Independence and of Freedom. 

war of mercy, and of courtesy, like that We F ):Ut - se one moment to inquire what was 

of the civilized embattled Legions ofEu- this cause of North A me ican Independence, 

rope; but war to the knife — (lie war of In- and whit were the motives an 1 inducements 

dian savages, terrible to man, but more to tbc youthful stranger to devote himself, 

terrible to the tender sex, and most terri- |,j 8 |.f t>i arK ] fortune, to it. 

ble to helpless infancy. In defence of his T|l(J p eople of ,, je Bfi jgl , Colonies in 

country against the ravages of such a war North America after a controverBV often 

n ashinsrton, m the dawn of manhood, had , .. .., ^, . - , 

,. . .,,, ., .... years duration with their .Sovereign bevond 

drawn his sword, as il Providence with dc- J , ,. 

liberate j-urpose, had sanctified for him the the seas, upon an attempt by ban and his 

practice of war, all detestable and unha!- Parliament to tax them without their consent, 

'owed as it is, that be might, in a cause, had been constrained by ne essity to declare 

virtuous and exalted by its motive and its themselves independent — to dis olve the tie 

end, be trained and fitted in a congenial of their allegiance to him — to renounce their 

school to march in aftertimes the leader of right to his protection, and to assume their 

heroes in the war of his country's Inde- station among the independent civilized Na- 

pendence. tions of the Earth> Thig ha( , bega donewith 

At the time of the birth of Lafayette, this a deliberation and solemnity unexampled in 
war, which vvai; -o make him a fatherless the history of the world— done in the midst 
child, and in which Washington was lying f a c , v ji waTj differing in character from any 
broad and deep, in th? defence and protec- f those which far centuries before had deso- 
tion of his native land, the foundations of his i Ue(1 Europe. The war had arisen upon a 
unrivalled renown, vv is but in its early stage, question between the rights of the People and 
It was to continue five years longer, and fhe poW ers of their Government. The dis- 
was to close wit!) the total extinguishment of c BS j on g s j n the progress of the controversy, 
the colonial dominion of France on the Con- in .i opene d to the contemplations of men the 
tinent of North America. The deep hu'milia- g rst foundations of civil society and ofgovern- 
tion of France, and the triumphant ascend m- ment> The war of Independence began by 
cy on this Continent, of her rival, were the litigation upon a petty stamp on paper, and 
first results of this great national conflict.— ., t ., x f three pence a pound upon tea; but 
The complete expulsion of Prince, from North these broken}) the fountainsof the great deep, 
America seemed to the superficial vision of nnd tn ,, deJnge f!imie d. Had the British 
men to fix the British power over these ex- Parliament the right to tax the People of the 
tensive regions on foundations immovable as Colonies in another hemisphere, aiot rep- 
tile everlasting hills, resented in the Imperial legislature: They 

Let us pass in imagination a period of in- affirmed they had: the People of the Colonies 

ly twenty years, and alight upon the boarders insisted they had not. There were ten years 

of the river Brandywine. Washington is of pleading before they came to an issue ; and 

Commander-in-chief of the armies of the U. all the legitimate sour es of power, and all 

States of America — war is again raging in the primitive elements of freedom, were scru- 

r.he heart of his native land — hostile armies tinized. debated, analayzed, and elucidated, 

of one and the same name, blood, and Ian- before lighting the of the torch of Ate, and 



a npromising condition of their cause. Mr. 
Oe me avows his inability to furnish him 
with a passage to the United Stitea. "The 
mora desperate the causa," says Lafayette, 
"the greater need has itofmv services; and, if 
"Mr. Deane has no vessel for my passag , I 
"shall purchase one myself, and will traverse 
"the Ocean with a selected company of my 
"own." 

Other impediments arise. His des'gn be- 
comes known to the British Ambassaior at 
the court of Versailles, who remonstrates to 
•.he French Government agiinst it. At his 
instance, orders are issued for the detention 
of ihe vessel purchased by the Mar ;u:s r and 
fitted out at Bordeaux, and for the arrest of 
lis person. To elude the first of these orders, 
the vessel is removed from Bordeaux to the 
neighboring port of Passage, within the domi- 
nion of Spain. The order for his own arrest 
is executed; but, by stratagem and disguise, 
he escapes from the custody of those who have 
him in charge, and, before a second order can 
-each him, he is safe on the ocean wave, 
3ound to the land of Independence and of 
Freedom. 

It had been necessary to clear out the ves- 
sel for an Island of the West Indies; but, once 
at sea, he avails himself of his right as ow- 
ner of the ship, and compels his captain to 
steer for the shores of emancipated North 
America. He lands, with his companions, 
on the 25th of April, 1777, in South Caro- 
lina, not far from Charleston, and finds a 
most cordial receotion and hospitable weLome 
In the house of Major Huger. 

Every detail of this ad/enturou3 expedi- 
tion, full of incidents, combining with the 
simplicity of historical truth all the interest 
of romance, is so well known, and so familiar 
Co the memory of all who hear me, that I pass 
t.hem over without further notice. 

From Charleston he proceeded to Philadel- 
phia, where the Congress of the revolution 
were in session, and where he offered his ser- 
vices in the cause. Here again he was met 
with difficulties, which, to men of ordinary 
:ainds, would- have been insurmou itable. 
Mr, Daahe's contracts were so numerous, and 
,'ur offices of rank so high, that it was impos- 
sible they should be ratified by the Congress. 
He had stipulated for the appointment of other 
Major Generals; and in the same contract 
with that of Lafayette, for eleven other offi- 
cers, from the rank of Colonel to that of Lieu- 
;i>nant. To introduce these officers, stran- 
gers, -icarcely one of whom couid speak the 



anguage of the country, into the American 
army, to taVo rank and precedence over the 
native citizens whose ardent patriotism had 
pointed them to the standard of their country, 
could not, without great injustice, nor without 
exciting the most fital dissensions, have been 
done; and this answer was necessaily given as 
well to Laf yette as to the other officers 
who had accompanied him from Eu ope. His 
r.'ply was an offer to ser e as a volunteer, 
and without pay. Magnanimity, thus disin- 
terested, could not be resisted, nor could the 
sense of it be worthily manifested by a mere 
acceptance of the ofi'cr. On the 3l6t of Ju- 
ly, 1777, therefore, the following resolution 
and preamble are recorded upon the Journals 
of Congress. 

"Whereas the Marquis de Lafayette, out 
"of his great zeal to the cause of Liberty, in 
"which the United States are engaged, has 
"left h s family and connexions, and at his 
"own expense, come over to offer his service 
"to the United States, wilhout pension, or par- 
ticular allowance, and is anxious to risk his 
"life in our cause: 

"Resolved, that his service be accepted, and 
"that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious 
"family, and connexions, he have the rank 
"and Commission of M;ijor Gexeral in the ar- 
"my of the United States." 

He hid the rank and commission, but no 
command as a Major General. With this, all 
personal ambition was gratif.ed; and whatev- 
er se- vices he might perform, he could attain 
no higher rank in the Ameri an army. The 
discontents of officers already in ihe service, 
at being superseded in command by a strip- 
ling foreigner, were disarmed; nor was the 
prudence of Congress, perhaps, without its 
influence in withholding a command, which, 
but for a judgment premature "beyon I the 
slow advance of years," might have hazarded 
something of the sacred cause itself, by con- 
fidence too hastily bestowed. 

The day after the date of his commis- 
sion, he was introduced to Washington 
Commander-in-chief of the armies of the 
Confederation. It was the critical peri- 
od of the campaign of 1777. The Britisk 
army commanded by Lord Howe, was ad- 
vancing from the head of Elk, to which they 
had been transported by sea from New 
York, upon Philadelphia. Washington by 
a counteracting movement, had been ap- 
proaching from his line of defence, in the 
Jerseys, towards the city, and arrived 
there on the 1st of August. It was a meet- 
ing of congenial souls. At the close of it* 



Washington gave the youthful stranger an The head-quarter3 of Washington, ser- 
invitation to make the head-quarters of ving as a volunteer, with the rank and 
the Commander-in-chief his home: that commission of Major General without 
he should establish himself there at his command, was precise;? the station adap- 
own time, and consiJer himself at all times ted to the developement of, ii is character, 
sis one of his family. It was natural that, to his own honor aud that of the army, and 
in giving this invitation, he should remark to the prudent management of the coun- 
the contrast of the situation ill which it try's cause. To him it was at once a sev- 
would place him, with that of eas;.' and ere school of experience, and a rigorous 
comfort, and luxurious enjoyment, which test of merit, But it was not the place to 
be had left, at the splendid Court, of Louis restrain him from exposure to danger. 
XVI, and of his heantiful and accomplish- The time at which he joined the camp was 
ed, but ill-fated Queen, then at the very one of pre-eminent peril. The British 
summit of alt which constitutes the com- Government and the Commander in chief 
mon estimate of felicity. How deep and of the British forces ha I imagined that 
solemn was this contrast! No native A- the possession of Philadelphia, combined 
merican had undergone the trial of the with that of the line along the Hudson 
same alternative.— None of them, save river, from the Canadian frontier to the 
Lafayette, had brought the same tribute city of New York, would be fatal to the 
of his life, his fortune, and his honor, to a American cause. By the capture of Bur- 
cause of a country foreign to his own. To goyne and his army, that portion of the pro- 
Lafayette the soil of freedom was his ject sustained a total defeat. The final is- 
country. His post of honor was the oost sue of the war was indeed sealed with the 
of danger. His fireside was the field of capitulation of the 17th Oct. l*J77,at Sar- 
battle. He accepted withjoy the invita- ratoga — sealed not with the subjugation, 
tion of Washington, and repaired forth- but with the independence of the North 
with to the camp. The bond of indi'solu- American Union. 

ble friendship— the friendship of heroes, In , he Southern campaign the British 

was sealeJ from the first hour of their cornmamier wa9 more successful. The 

meeting to last throughout their lives, and foH of Philadelphia was the result of the 

to live in the memory of mankind for- battle of Brandy wine, on the 1 Ith of Sept. 

ever * This was the first action in which Lafay- 

It was, perhaps, at the suggestion of the ette was engaged, and the first lesson of 

American Commissioners in France, that his practical military school was a lesson 

this invitation was given by Washington, of misfortune. In the attempt to rally the 

In a letter from them, of the 25th of .May, American troops in their retreat, he re- 

1777, to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, ceived a musket ball in the leg. He was 

they announce that the Marquis ha! de- scarcely conscious of the wound till made 
parted for the United States in a ship of sensible of it by the loss of blood, and 

Lis own, accompanied by some officers even then ceased not his exertions in the 

of distinction, in order to serve in our ar- field till he had secured and covered the 

rnies. They observe that he is exceed- retreat. 

ingly beloved, and that every body's good T | lis casl1a l t y confined him sometime to 

wishes attend him. They cannot but hope j ( j g heJ in Philadelphia, and afterwards de- 

that he will meet with such a reception as ta i ne d him some days at Bethlehem; but 

will make the country ami his expedition witll ;„ s j x wee ks he rejoined the head 

agreeable to him.— They further say that quarte rs of Washington, near Whitemarsh. 

those who censure it as imprudent in him, jj goon became anxious to obtain a 

d; nevertheless applaud his spirit; and commam ] eqna | t0 his rank, and in the 

they are satisfied that civilities and re- s h rt apace of time that he had been with 

spect shown to him will be serviceable to ))ie commaru ] C r-in-ohief, had so thorough- 

our cause in France, as pleasing not on- [ y obtained his confidence as to secure an 

!y to his powerful relations and to the earnest solicitation from him to Congress 

Court, but to the whole French Nation. j Q bis favor. In a letter to Congress of 

They finally aid, that he left a beautiful the lst f November, 1777 he says:—"The 

young wife, and for her sake particularly, »M ar qm S do Lafayette is extremely "so- 

they hoped that his bravery and ardent de- ««H c ito«s of having a command equal to 

sire to distinguish himself would be a lit- i«bis rank. I do not know in what light 

tie restrained by the General's (Washing- «.p ongres9 w ;n view the matter, but it ap- 

ton's) prudence, so as not to permit his « pears to me, from a consideration of his 



. , , , -- — . _ , - ^ ucars in Miu, iiuiii u tuuan 

being hazxarded much, but upon some im- «jn lls trions arK ] important 
portant occasion. ,. tlje attachment which he 1: 



connexions, 
has manifested 



^promising condition of their cause. Mr. anguine of the country, into the American 

Dame avows his inability to furnish him army, to taVe rank and precedence over the 

with a passage to the United States. «'The native citizens whose ardent patriotism had 

mora desperate the cause," says Lafayette, pointed them to the standard of their country, 
"the greater need has it of my services; and, if could not, without great injustice, nor without 

"Mr. Deane has no vessel for my passag •, I exciting the most fital dissensions, have been 

,c shall purchase one myself, and will traverse done; and this answer was necessaily given aa 

"the Ocean with a selected company of my well to Laf yette as to the other officers 

"own.' who had uccompanied him from Eu ope. His 

Other impediments arise. His design be- r.-ply was an offer to ser e as a volunteer, 

«omes known to the British Ambassador at and without pay. Magnanimity, thus disin- 

the court of Versailles, who remonstrates to terested, could not be resisted, nor could the 

she French Government agiinst it. At his sense of it be worthily manifested by a mere 

instance, orders are issued for the detention acceptance of the offcr. On the 31st of Ju- 

of the vessel purchased by the Mar ;u:s r and ly, 1777, therefore, the following resolution 

fitted out at Bordeaux, and for the arrest of and preamble are racorded upon the Journals 

r lis person. To elude the first of these orders, of Congress. 

the vessel is removed from Bordeaux to the « Whereas the Marquis de Lafayette, out 
neighboring port of Passage, within the domi- «, (>f llis great zeal to the cause of Ljbert „ ia 
nion ot Spam. The order for lus own arrest <. which the United States are engage d, has 
.8 executed; but, by stratag.m and disguise, »left h s family and connexions, and at his 
ae escapes from the custody of those who have „ own expense , come over to offer his service 
him m charge, and, belorea second order can ,. t0 the United Slate8) wil houtpensk:n, or par- 
reach him, he is safe on the ocean wave, « ticular allowance, and is anxious to risk his 
bound to the land of Independence and of „i:p e j n cur ( . ause . 
rreedom. "Resolved, that his service be accepted, and 

It had been necessary to clear out the ves- «, that) in consi( Jerationof his zeal, illustrious 

selfor an Island ot the West Indies; but, once «f ami ] y , and connexions.be have the rank 

at sea, he avails himseli of his right as ow- « and Commission of Major General in the ar- 

ner of the ship, and compels his captain to .« my f tne United States." 

steer for the shores of emancipated North He lnd the rank ond comm j as j on , but no 

Vmerica. He lands, with lus companions, command as a Major General. With this, all 

on theSoth of April, 1777, in South Giro- p3rsonal ambition was gratif.ed; and whatev- 

Una, not far from Charleston, and finds a er sc vices he might perform, he could attain 

most cordial reception and hospitable welcome n0 hjgher rank jn the Ameri an army# The 

n the house of Major Huger. discontents of officers already in the service. 

Every detail of this adventurous expedi- at bem* superseded in command by a strip- 

tton, full of incidents, combining with the i mff f or ° ei -ner. were disarmed; nor was the 

simplicity of historical truth all the interest pn r dence J of Confess, perhaps, without its 

ot romance, is so well known, and so familiar influence in withholding a command, which, 

to the memory of all who hear me, that I pass but for a j„ dgmcnt prema ture "beyonJlha 

them over without further notice. slow advatlce G f years," might have hazarded 

From Cha-Ieston he proceeded to Philadel- 80mething ofthe sacred cause itse lf, by con- 
phia, where the Congress of the revolution fiden ce too hastily bestowed, 
were in session, and where he offered his ser- The day afteP the date f his comtnis- 
viees in the cause. Here again he was met s j onj he was introduced to Washington 
with difficulties, which, to men of ordinary Commander-in-chief of the armies ofthe 
minds, would' have been insurmou liable. Confederation. It was the critical peri- 
Mr, Daahe's contracts were so numerous, and od of the campaign of 1777. The British 
for offices of rank so high, that it was impos- army commanded by Lord Howe, was ad- 
sible they should be ratified by the Congress, vancing from the head of Elk, to which they 
He had stipulated forthe appointment of other ^d been transported by sea from New 
ir • ' « i i • A . ^ ork, upon Philadelphia. v\ ashington, by 
.'Major txenerals; and m the same contract ' ' .. v . , , .° „ 

. i , ,, x - „ , , rr a counteracting movement, had been ap* 

with that of Lafayette, for eleven other offi- proachin& . from llis Hne of defence, in the 

>:ers, from the rank of Colonel to that of Lieu- j erseys% towards the city, and arrived 

tenant. To introduce these officers, stran- t b er e on the 1st of August. It wasameet- 

gers, scarcely one of whom could speak tho ing of congenial souls. At the close of it. 



Washington gave the youthful stranger an J he head-quarter3 ot vv aslungton, ser- 
invitation to make the head-quarters of ving as a volunteer, with tlie rank and 
the Commander-in-chief his home: that commission of Major General without 
he should establish himself there at his command, was precisely the station adap- 
own time, and consiJer himself at all times ted to the developement of, his character, 
as one of his family. It was natural that, to his own honor and that of the army, and 
in giving this invitation, he should remark to the prudent management of the conn- 
the contrast of the situation iu which it try's cause. To him it was at once a sev- 
would place him, with that of casL' and ere school of experience, and a rigorous 
comfort, and luxurious enjoyment, which test of merit. But it was not the place to 
he had left, at the splendid Court, of Louis restrain him from exposure to danger. 
XVI, and of his beautiful and accomplish- The time at which he joined the camp was 
ed, but ill-fated Queen, then at the very one of pre-eminent peril. The British 
summit of all which constitutes the com- Government and the Commander in chief 
mnn estimate of felicity. How deep arid of the British forces had imagined that 
solemn was this contrast! No native A- the possession of Philadelphia, combined 
merican had undergone the trial of the with that of the line along the Hudson 
same alternative.— None of them, save river, from the Canadian frontier to the 
Lafayette, had brought the same tribute city of New York, would be fatal to the 
of his life, his fortune, and his honor, to a American cause. By the capture of Bur- 
cause of a country foreign to his own. To govne and his army, that portion of the pro- 
Lafayette the soil of freedom was his ject sustained a total defeat. The final is- 
country. His post of honor was the oost sue of the war was indeed sealed with the 
of danger. His fireside was the field of capitulation of the 17th Oct. 1777, at Sar- 
battle. He accepted with joy the invita- ratoga — sealed not with the subjugation, 
tion of Washington, and repaired forth- but with the independence of the North 
with to the camp. The bond of indi'solu- American Union. 

ble friendship— the friendship of heroes, j n , he Southern campaign the British 
was sealed from the first hour of their commam ] er was mo re successful. The 
meeting to last throughout their lives, and foil Q f Philadelphia was the result of the 
to live in the memory of mankind for- battle of Brandy wine, on the 1 !th of Sept. 
ever. This was the first action in which Lafay- 

It was, perhaps, at the suggestion of the ette was engaged, and the first lesson of 
American Commissioners in France, that his practical military school was a lesson 
this invitation was given by Washington, of misfortune. In the attempt to rally the 
In a letter from them, of the 25th of .May, American troops in their retreat, he re- 
1777, to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, ceived a musket ball in the leg. He was 
they announce that the Marquis had de- scarcely conscious of the wound till made 
parted for the United States in a ship of sensible of it by the loss of blood, and 
Lis own, accompanied by some officers even then ceased not his exertions in the 
of distinction, in order to serve in our ar- f ie l c l till he had secured and covered the 
mies. They observe that he is exceed- retreat. 




agreeable to lam.— They further say that quarter g bf Washington, near Whitemarsh. 

those who censure it as imprudent in hirn, jjr e soon became anxious to obtain a 
d; nevertheless applaud his spirit; and cornmatu J equal to his rank, and in the 
they are satisfied that civilities and re- s | 10rt space of time that he had been with 
spect shown to him will be serviceable to t[je comma nder-in-chief, had so thorough- 
our cause in France, as pleasing not on- j y „b la j ne( ] ),; s confidence as to secure an 
ly to his powerful relations and to the earnest solicitation from him to Congress 
Court, but to the whole French Nation. {n disfavor. In a letter to Congress of 
They finally a Id, that he left a beautiful t i, e i st of November, 1777 he says:— "The 
young wife, and for her sake particularly, "Marquis de Lafayette is extremely "so- 
they hoped that his bravery and ardentde- "]i c i toits f having a command equal to 
sire to distinguish himself would be a lit- «*his rank. I do not know in what light 
tie restrained by the General's (Washing- "Congress will view the matter, but it ac- 
ton's) prudence, so as not to permit his <» pears t o me, from a consideration of his 
being hazxarded much, but upon some im- «Jilustrions and important connexions, 
portant occasion. ,« the attachment which he has manifested 



"for our cause, and the consequences the judgment of Washington ; and these are 

"which his return in disgust might pro- the properties which his discernment has 

"duce, that it will be advisable to gratify found in Lafayette, and which urged him 

"him in his wishes; and the more so, as thus so earnestly to advise the gratifica- 

"several gentlemen from France, who tion of his wish by the assignment of a. 

"came over under some assurances, ' command equal to the rank which had 

"have gone back disappointed in their ex-/' been granted to his zeal and his illustrious 

"pectations. His conduct with respect to name. 

"them stands in a favorable point of view ; The recommendation of Washington 

"having interested himself to remove their had its immediate effect ; and on the 1st of 

"uneasiness, and urged the impropriety of December, 1777, it was n solved by Con- 

"their making any unfavorable represen- gress that he should be informed it was 

"tations upon their arrival at home ; and highly agreeable to Congress that the Mar- 

"in all his letters he has placed our affairs quis de Lafayette should be appointed to 

"in the best situation he could. Besides, the command of a division in the Conti- 

"he is sensible, discreet in his manners; nental Army. 

"has made great proficiency in our Ian- He received accordingly such an appointment 

"guage;and from the disposition he dis- aru ] a p l an was organized in Congress for a sec- 

"covered at the battle of Brandy wine, pos- ,• • f,, , it ..L»j r „,u;„u 

. , . . J , r... ond invasion of Canada, at the head or which 

"sesses a large share of bravery and mill- , , , ™, . ,. . ." . „ 

"tarv ardor ' he was placed. 1 his expedition, originally pro- 

Perhaps one of the highest encomiums jected without consult* ion with the Co.nman- 

ever pronounced of a man in public life, is d er "'n chief, might he. connected with the tem- 

that of a historian eminent for his pro- porary dissatisfaction, in the community and in 

found acquaintance with mankind, who, Congress, at the ill success of his endeavors 

in painting a great character by a single to defend Philadelphia, which rival and un- 

line, says that he was just equal to all the friendly partizans were too ready to compare 

duties of the highest offices which he at- w j th the Bp ] eni ]j | termination, by ihe capture 

tamed, and never above them. There are of Bur - oyne and his anny) f the Northern 

in some men qualities which dazzle or • , tU i „r r<„,.„,..i 

, ,...? , ... campaign, under the command or General 

consume to little or no valuable purpose. • n ° ' -- , „ . . r ... 

i-'u^.. „„u u i j *i * l r Ga'es. lo foreclose a I suspicion ol partici- 

1 hey seldom belong to the great benefac- T "«• i 

tors of mankind. They were not the qual- P atl0n m these views, Lafayette proceeded to 

ities of Washington or of Lafayette. The the seat of Congress, and, accepting the mi- 

testimonial offered by the American Com- portant charge which it was proposed to as- 

mander to his young friend, after a proba- sign to him, obtained at his particular request 

tion of several months and after the sev- that he should be considered as an officer de- 

ere test of the disastrous day of Brandy- tached from the army of Washington, and to 

wine, was precisely adapted to the man remain under his orders. He then repaired 

in whose favor it was given, and to the h n tQ Albany, to take command of 

object which, i wasto accomplish. What he troops who were to assemble at that place. 

earnestness of purpose! what sincerity or . , , , , , . , . 

conviction! what energetic simplicity of m order to cross the Lakes on the ice, and at- 

expression! what thorough delineation of tack Montreal; but on arriving at Albany, he 

character! The merits of Lafayette, to found none of the promised preparations in 

the eye of Washington, are the candor readiness — they were never effected . Con- 

and generosity of his disposition — the in- grass some tima after relinquished the design, 

defatigable industry of application which, an I the Marquis was ordered to rejoin the ar- 

in thecourseofa few months, has already mv f Washifton. 

given him the mastery of a foreign Ian _ , ,. .. - , T , • •»• 
* „.„ „. j j- t - e In the succeeding month of May, his mili- 
guage — good sense — discretion or man- ° J . 
ners; an attribute not only unusual in ear- tar y t;l1 nt was displayed by the masterly re- 
ly years, butdoubly rare in alliance with treat effected in the presence of an overwhel- 
that enthusiasm so signally marked by his ming superiority of the enemy's force from the 
self devotion to the American cause; and position at Barren Hill. 

to crown all the rest, the bravery and mil- He was soon after distinguished atthebat- 

itary ardor so brilliantly manifested at the tle of Monmouth, and in September. 1778, a 



Brandywine. Here is no random praise; , ,• c r> ,i„„i.,-„;i »i, Q ;.. Ui„v. 

1 . . rr>, ■ i t r resolutiou or Congress declared their nigh 

no unmeaning panegyric. 1 his clusterot ,. . . . = . . lL . m < : 

„„.,i ;+;„.. „n i •„ i • i u..f o, i sense ot his services, notonly in the held, out 

qualities, all plain and simple, but so sel- ' J .. 

dom found in union together, so generally in his exertions to conciliate and heal dissen- 

incompatible with one another, these are tions between the officers of the French fleet 

the properties eminently trust-worthy, in under the command of Count d'Estaing and 



eome of the native officers of our army. These deeds, in a service now become that of France 
dissentions had arisen in the first moment..- of herself. At the close of the campaign of 17- 
co-operation t;i tlieservice, and had threatened 78, with the approbation of his friend and pa- 
pernicious consequences. tron the commander in-chief, he addressed a 

In the month of April, 177(5, the combin- letter to th" President of Congress, represent- 
ed wisdom of the Count de V'ergennes and of ing his then present circumsta - ces with the 
M. Turgot, the Prime Minister, and the Fi- confidence of affection and gratitude, obser- 
nancier of Louis the Sixteenth, hid brought ving that the smtiments which bound him to 
•him to the conclusion, that the event ihe most his country could never be more properly spo- 
desiruhle to France, with regard to the con- ken of than in the presence of men who had 
Jtroversy between Great Britian and her Amer- done so much for their own. "As long, (con- 
<can Colonies was that the insurrection should be 'tinued he,) as I thought I could dispose of 
■suppressed. This judgement evincing only 'myself, 1 mada it my pride and pleasure to 
the total absence of all moral considerations, 'fight un ler American colours, in defence of 
in the estimate, by these eminent statesmen, ,i cause which I dare more particularly call 
■of what was desirable to France, had under- 'ours, because I had the good fortune of bleed- 
.gone a great change by the close of the year 'ing for lie,-. Niiv, Sir, that France is invol- 
1777. The declaration of Independence had 've.l in a war, I am urged by a sense of my du- 
<changed the question between the parties. *ty, as well as by the love of my country, to 
The popular feeling of France was all on the present myself before the King, and know, 
side of the Americans. The daring and ro- in what manner he judges proper to employ, 
mantic movement of Lafayette, in defiince 'my services. The most agreeable of a 1 will 
of the Government itself, then highly favor- 'always he such, as may enable me to serve 
ed by public opinion, was followed by univer- 'thecomnon cause among those whose friend- 
sal admiration. The spontaneous spirit of the 'ship I had the happiness to obtain, and whose 
peoplegraduallyspread its dfeven over the rank 'fortune I had the honortofo lowin lesssmiling 
corruption of tiie Court; a suspicious and de- 'times. That reas n and others, which I 
ceptive neutrality succeeded to an ostensible 'leave to the feelings of Congress, engage me 
exclusion of the Insurgents from the ports of 'to beg fr m them the liberty of going home 
France, till the capitulation of Burgoynesat- 'for the next winter. 

isfied the casuist of international law at Ver- "As long asthers were any hopes of an 
seilles that the suppression of the insurrection active campaign, I did not think of leaving 
was no linger the most desirable of events; the field; now that I see a very peaceablo 
but that the United States were de facto, and undisturbed moment, I take this oppor- 
sovereign and independent; and that France tuuity o.' waiting on Congress." 
might conclude a Treaty of Commerce with In the remainder of the letter he solicited 
them, without giving just cause of offence that, in the event of his request being granted, 
to the step-mother country. On the 6th of lie might be considered as a soldier on fur- 
February, 1778, a Treaty of < 'ommerce be- lough, heartily wishing to regain hiscolors and 
tween France and the United States was con- his esteemed and beloved fellow soldiers. And 
eluded, and with it, on the same day, a Trea- he cloa :s with a tender of any services which 
ty of eventual Defensive Alliance, to take of- he might be enabled to render to the Ameri- 
fect only in the event of Great Britian's re- can cause in his own country, 
eenting, by war against France, the consum- On the receipt of this letter, accompanied 
mation of the Commercial Treaty. The -a ar by one from General Washington, recommend- 
immediately ensued, and in the summer of ing to Congress, in terms most honorable to 
1778 a French Meet, under the command of the Marquis, a compliance with his request, 
Count d'Eslaing was sent to co-operate with that body immediately passed resolutions gran- 
the forces of the United States for the main- ting him an unlimited leave of absence, with 
ten nee oi their Independence. permission to return to the United States at 

By these events the position of the Mar- his own most convenient time ; that the Presi- 
quisde Lafayette was essentially changed. It dent of Congress should write him a letter, re- 
became necessary for him to reinstate himself turning him the thanks of Congress for that 
in the good graces of his Sovereign, offended disinterested zeal which had led him to Ameri- 
at his absenting himself from bis co ntry ca, ; nd for the services he had rendered tc 
without permission, but gratified with the dis- the United Sates by the exertion of. his 
tinction which he had acquired by gallant courage and abilities on many signal occa- 



Biotas, and tint' the Minister Plenipotentiary merit acolinuance of the same affection from 
of the United States at the Court of Versail- America." 

lea should be directed to cauae an elegant Immediately after he arrived in the United 
sword with proper devices, to he made and States, it was, on the 16th of May, 1780, 
presented to him in the name of the United resolved in Congress, that th?y c msidered 
States. T.ies; resolutions were communica his return to America to resume his command 
ted to him in a letter ex pressive f the sen- as a fresh proof of the disinterested zeal and 
sibility congeni il to them, from the Presi- persevering- attachment, which have justly re- 
defftflf Congress, Henry Laurens, commended him to the public confidence and 

lie embarked in January, 1779, in the fri- applause, and th t they received with pleas- 
gate Alliance, at 11 >st n, and, oh the succeed- ure a tender of the farther services of so gal- 
ing 12th day of February, presanted himself lant and meritorious an officer. 
St Versailles. Twelve months had already Pr im this time until the term'nation of tho 
elapsed since the conclusion of the Treaties campaign of 1781, by the surrender of Lord 
of Commerca anri of eventual alliance between Cornwallis ard his any at Yorktovvn, his 
France and tho (Jailed Stites. They had, service was of incessant activity, always sig- 
dtirinj the greater part of that time, been nalized by militarv talents uniurpassed, and 
deeply engig;,l in a war with a common by a spirit never to be subdued. Atthetime 
cause against Great. Brit tin, and it was the of the treason of Arnold, Lafayette was ac- 
caus >. in which l.afiyette had been shedding companing his Co:nmander-;n chief to an im- 
h s blood ; yet, instead of receiving him with por ant conference and consultation with the 
open a -ms, as the pride and o nament of his French General Rncharnbeau ; and then, as 
country, a cold anil hallow-hearted order was in every stage of the war, it seemed as if the 
issued to him not *o present himself at Court, position which he ocr-upied, his personal char- 
but to consider himself under arres , with acter, his individual relations with Washing- 
permission to receive visits only from his re- ton, with officers of both the allied armies, 
lations. This ostensible mark of the Royal and with the armies themselves, had been 
displeas re was to Lst eight days, and La- specially ordered to promote and secure the 
fayette manifested his sense of it only by a h rmony and mutual good ui.derstanding in- 
letter to th; Count de Vergennes, inquiring dispensable to the ultimate Hticcess of tho 
whether the interdiction upon him to receive common cause. His position, too, as a for- 
visits wis to be tons' dered as extending to eigner by birth, a European, a volunteer in 
mat of Dr. Franklin. The sentiment of univer- tho American service, and a person of high 
sid admiration which had followed him at first rank in his native country, pointed him 
departure, greatly increased by his splendid out as peculiarly suited to the painful duty 
caree of service during the two years of his of decidi g upon the character of the crime, 
absence, indemnified him for the indignity of and upon the fate ofthe British officer, theac- 
the courtly rebuke, complice and victim of the detested traitor, 

He rem lined in Frince through the year Arnold. 

1779. and returned to the scene of action ear- In the early part o^the campaign of 1781, 
iy in the ensuing year. He continued in the when Cornwallis, with an overwhelming force; 
French service, and was appointed to com- was spreading ruin and devastation over the 
mand the King's own regiment of dragoons, Southern portion of the Union, we find La- 
stationed during the year in various parts of fayette, with means altogether inadequate, 
the Kingdom, and holding an inc ssant cor- charged with the defence of the Territory of 
respondent with the Ministers of Foreign Virginia. Always equal to the emergencies 
Affairs and of War, urging th ; employment in which circumstances placed him, his ex- 
of a land and naval force in aid of the Aineri- pedients for encountering and surmounting 
can cause. the obstacles which they cast in his way ara 

"The Marquis de Lafayette}" says Dr. invariably stamped with the peculiarities of 
Franklin, in a letter of the 4th of March, his character. The troops placed under his 

1780, to the President of Congress, " who, command for the defence of Virginia were 
during his residence in France, has been ex- chiefly taken from the Eastern regiments, 
tremely zealous in suporting our cause on all unseasoned to the climate of the South, and 
occos;'o?w,return3 again to fight for it. He is in- prejudiced against it as unfavorable to tho 
finitely esteemed and beloved here, and I am health of the natives of the more rigorous re- 
persuaded will do every thing in nis power to gions of the North. Desertions became f*u- 



3'ient, till they threatened the very cTesoJu- rjag the Revolutionary war. Btit it was 

non of the corps. Instea I of resorting to not for the individual enjoyment of his re- 

military execution to retain his men, he ap- nown that he returned to Fiance. The 

peals to the sympathies of honor, lie states resolutions of Congress accompanying that. 

in ^neral orders, the great danger and dim- f Mob gave hun a discretionary leave of 

- , ill absence, while honorary in lite highest de- 

culty of the enterprise upon winch he is a- gree to , lim> were ',, lnaiU b cdl)y a 

bout to embark: represents the only possi- graHt ofvirtua , credentials lo. negotiation, 
bility by which it cm promise succesB, the and by the trust ofconfidcntial powei'8, to- 
faithful adherence ofthe soldiers to their chief, getherwith a letter of the wannest com- 
and his confidence that they will not abandon mendation of the gallant soldier to the fa- 
Jjim. vor of his King. — The ensuing year was 
He then adds, that if, however; any inch- consumed in preparations for a formidable 
vidua! of the detachment was unwilling to combined French and Spanish expedition 
follow him, a passport to return to h s home a ? ai " st the B,i . t,s !' If lands in the West In- 

, , , , .- ,1 -,, .ti- u- dies, and parlicularly the island of Jainai- 

shou d be torth with granted him upon his ap- ' v ., ' v . ,'"**, 

,. T . ^ b ... ' . *" - s . ca; thence to recoil upon New York, aud 

plication. It is to acause hkethatot Amen- to pi|rs(Je ^ rflenBivo P war inlo Canada . 

can Independence th t resources like this are Tlie fleet destined for this gigantic under- 
congenial, After t eee general orders noth- taking was already assembled at Cadiz; 
kig more was heard of desertion. The very and Lafayette, appointed the chief of the 
cripples of the army preferred paying for staff, was there, ready to embark upon this 
their own transportation, to follow the corps, perilous adventure, uhen, on the SOth of 
rather than to ask for the dismission which November, 1782, the preliminary treaties 
hid been made so easily accessible to all. of peace were concluded between Lis Brit- 

But tew shall the deficiencies of the milita- tannic Ma J e * ty on °£ e P art ' an , d t l Ue ^ Uie( \ 

, ., ,■ ,. Tl , ,. rowers oi r ranee, ©pain, and the United 

ry chest be supplied! The want of mr.ney was gtates of Americaj on the otlier> The 

heavily pressing upon the ferv.ee m every first intcIligence of tllis event received by 
direction. Where are the sinews of war ! — the American Congress was in the commti- 
How are the troops to march without shoes, nication of a letter from Lafayette, 
linen, clothing of all descriptions, aid other The war of American Independence is 
necessaries of life? Lafayette has found them closed. The People of the North Ameri- 
all. From the patriotic merchants of Balti- can Confederation are in union, sovereign 
more he obtains, on the pledges of his own and independent. Lafayette, at twenty- 
personal credit, a loan of money adequate to flve >' ears ofa S e ' lias lived tlie life of a pat 
., , r»i „ .„ • i i .• .u narch, and illustrated the career of a he- 
the purchase ot the materials: and trom the ,; , , . , . , *. 
- . 7 i r.i j i. (.., hi ro. Had his days upon earth been then 

fair hands of the daughters ot tlie Monumen- „ lim u„„ j „„j l±j uZ *t i„ * *i , ■ 

b numbered, and had he then slept with bis 

tal City, even then worthy to he so called, he fathers, illustrious as for centuries their 
obtains the toil of making up the needed gar- names had been, his name, to the end of 
«ient6. time, would have transcended them all. 

The details of the campaign, from its Fortunate youth! fortunate beyond even 
unpromising outset, when Cornwall's, the the measure of his companions in arms 
British commander, exulted in anticipa- with whom he had achieved the glorious 
lion that the boy could not escape him till consummation of American Independence. 
the storming of tue twin redoubts, in em- His fame was all his own ; not cheaply ear- 
olation of gallantry by the valiant French- ned ; not ignobly won. His fellow-soldier* 
men of Vimnesnil, and the American fel- had been the champions and defenders of 
low-soldiers of Lafayette, led by him to their country. They reaped for t hem- 
victory at Yorktown, must be left to the selves, for their wives, their children, their 
recording pen of History. Both redoubts posterity to the latest time, the rewards o' 
were carried at the point of the sword, and their dangers and their toils. Lafayette 
Cornwallis with averted face, surrendered had watched, and labored and fought, and 
his sword to Washington. bled, not fur himself, not for his family, 

This was the last vital struggle of the not, in the first instance, even for his coun- 
war, which, however, lingered through a- try. In the legendary tales of chivalry 
notberyear rather of negotiation than of we read of tournaments at which a foreign 
action. Immediately after the capitula- & unknown knight suddenly presentshim- 
(ion at Yorktown, Lafayette asked and self, armed in complete steel and, with the 
obtained agaiu a leave of absence to visit vizor down, enters the ring to contend 
■is family and his country, and with this with the assembled flower of knighthood 
•Used bis military service in the field du- for the prize oi honor, to be awarded by 



14 

the hand of beauty; bears it in triumph him who had first come to them in their af- 

away, and disappears from the astonished fliction, induced him, in the year 1784, to pay 

multitude of competitors and spectators of a v j s j t to t | ie United States. 
the feats of arms. But where, in the rolls Qn ihQ 4th of A of ^ he 

of History, where, in the fictions of Ko- , , . . » T v' i j • »i Jc 

mance, where, but in the life of Lafay- J^'^ ^ New York, and ,u the S pace of five 

ette, has been seen the noble stranger, fly- ™ :,ntlis from that time v,s,ted *** venerable 

ing, with the tribute of his name, his rank, fnend at Mmlnt Vernon, where he was then 

his affluence, his ease, his domestic bliss, living i 1 retirement, and traversed ten States 

his treasure, his blood, to the relief of a of the Union, receiving every where, from 

suffering and distant land, in the hour of their Legislative Assemblies, from the Muni- 

her deepest calamity — baring his bosom to cipil Bodies of the cit.es and towns through 

her foes; and not ai the transient pageant- which he passed, from the officers of the army, 

ry of a tournament, but for a succession his late assoc i ate8 , now restored to the vir- 

of five years, sharing all the vicissitudes of ,,,„„ i „„„„„,- „ e _• » re i 

.«:■■', 8 , . tues and occupations ot private lite, and even 

her fortune; always eager to appear at the ,- .. [ ? . , i • 

, c , , ° . ,, i e irom the recent emigrants trorn Ireland, who 

post of danger — tempering ti e glow of . . . f . . ,« 

youthful ardor with the cold caution of a had come to ado P l for their countrv the self * 
»eteran commander; bold and daring in emancipated land, addresses of gratulation 
action; prompt in execution; rapid in pur- and joy, the effusions of hearts grateful in the 
suit; fertile in expedients, unattainable in enjoyment of the blessings, for the possession 
retreat; often exposed, but never stirpri- of w lich tl ey had been solargel) indebted to 
sed, never disconcerted; eluding his ene- his exertions — and, finally from the United 
my when within his fancied grasp; bear- States of America in Congress assembled at 
ing upon him with irresistible sway when Trenton 

of force to cope with him in the conflict Qn ^ gth of December it was reso]ved b 
of arms: And what is this but the diary of A , . . , , . . . « 

T_ r „. <•„„*!„! c i • ii • n that body that a committee to consist ot one 

Lafayette, from the day of Ins rallying the * 

scattered fugitives of the Brandy wine, in- mernber ™ each btate, should be appointed 
sensible of the blood flowing from his to receive and in the name of Congress take 
wound, to the storming of the redoubt at leave of the Marquis. That they should be 
Yorktown? instructed to assure him that Congress con- 
Henceforth, as a public man, Lafayette is tinued to entertain the same high sense of 
to be considered as a Frenchman, always his abilities and zeal to promote the welfare 
active and ardent to serve the United States,, of America, both here and in Europe, which 
but no longer in their service as an officer, they had frequently expressed and man fest- 
So transcendant had been his merits in the ed on former occasions, and which the recent 
common cause, that, to reward them, the rule marks of his attention to thair commercial 
of progressive advancement in the armies of a id other interests had perfectly confirmed. 
Prance was set aside for him. He received "That, as his uniform and unceasing attach- 
from the Minister of War a notifirati n that, "ment to this country had resembled that of a 
from the day of his retirement from the s r- "patriotic citizen, the United States regard 
vice of the United States as a Major Gfen'l, **him with particular affection, and will not 
at the close of the war, he should hold the "ceaserto feel an interest in whatever may con- 
same rank in the armies of France, to date * cern his honor and prosperity and that their 
from the day of the capitulation of Lord Corn- "best and kindest wishes will always attend 
wallis. "him " 

Henceforth he is a Frenchman, destined And it was further resolved, that a letter be 
to perform in the history of his country a part, written to his Most Christian Majesty, to be 
as peculiarly his own, and not less glorious signed by his Excellency the President of 
than that which he had performed in the war Congress, expressive of the high sense which 
of independence. A short period of profound the United States in Congress assembled en- 
peace followed the great triumph of Freedom, tertain of the zeal, talents, and meritorious 
The desire of Lafayette once more to see the services of the Marquis de Lafayette; and re- 
land of his adoption and the associates of his commending him to the favor and patronage 
glory, the fellow soldiers who had become to of his majesty. 

him as brothers, and the friend and patron of The first of these resolutions was, on the 

kis youth, who had become to him as a fa- next day, carried into execution. At a sol- 

Iher; sympathizing with their desire once emn interview with the committee of Con- 

■aora to see him — to see in their prosperity gress, received in their Hall, and addressed 



by the Chairman of their Committee, John he called to witnefs its extinction by neglect, 

Jay, the purport of these resolutions was com- nor a soil upon the purity of its keepers! 
municated to hi in. He replied in terms of With this valedictory, Lafayette took, as 

fervent sensibility for the kindness manifested he and those who heard him then believed, a 

personally to himself; and, with allusions to final leave of the people of the United States, 

thesitution, the prospects, and the unties of He returned to France and arrived at Paris 

the people of this country, he pointed out the on the 25th of January, 1785. 
great interests which he believed it indis- He continued to take a deep interest in the 

pensable to their welfare that they should cul- concerns of the United States, and exerted 

tivate and cherish. In the following memo- his influence with the French Government to 

rable sentences, the ultimate objects of his obtain reductions of duties favorable to their 

solicitude are disclosed in a tone deeply sol- commerce and fisheries. In the summer of 



emn and impressive: 

"May this immense Temple of Freedom," 
8aid he "ever stand a lesson to oppressors, an 
"example to the oppressed, a sanctuary for 
"the rights of mankind! may these happy 
U. S. attain that complete splendor and 
"prosperity which will illustrate the blessings 
"of their Government, and for ages to come 
"rejoice the departed souls of its founders." 



1786, he visited several of the German 
Courts, and attended the last great review by 
Frederick the second of his veteran army — a 
review unusually splendid, and specially re- 
markable by th j attendance of many of the 
most distinguished military commanders of 
Europe. 

In the same year the Legislature of Vir- 
ginia manifested the continued recollection of 
his services rendered to the People of that 



Fellow citizens! ages have passed away Commonwealth, by a complimentary token of 
since thesR words were spoken; but ages are gratitude not Jess honorable than it was unu- 
the years of the existence of Nations. The sual. They resolved that two busts of La- 
founders of this immense Temple of Freedom fayette,to be executed by the celebrated sculp- 
have all departed, save here and there a soli- tor, Houdon, should be procured at their ex- 
tary exception, even while I speak, at the pense; that one of them should be placed in 
point of tak.ng wing. The prayer of Lafay- their own Legislative Hall, and the other pre- 
ette is not consummated. Ages upon ages are sented, in their name, to the municipal au- 
still to pass away before it can have its full thoritiesof the city of Paris. It was aocor- 
accomplishment; and, for its full accomplish- dingly presented by Mr. Jefferson, then 
ment, his spirit, hovering over our heads, in Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States 
more than echoes talks around these walls — in France, and, by the permission of Louis 
It repeats the prayer which from his lips fifty Sixteenth, was accepted, and, with appro- 
years ago was at once a parting blessing and priate solemnly, placed in one of the Halls of 
a prophecy; for, were it possible for the whole the Hotel de Yille of the Metropolis of 
human race, now breathing the breath of France. 

life, to be assembled within this Hall, your Or- We have gone through one stage of the life 
ator would, in your name and in that of your of Lafayette: we are now to see him acting up- 
constitnents, appeal to them to testify for your on another theatre — in a cause still essential- 
fathers of the last generation, that, so far as ly the same, but in the application of its prin- 
has depended upon them, the blessing of La- ciples to his own country, 
fayette has been prophecy Yes! this im- The immediately originating question 
mense Temple of Freedom still stands, a les- which occasioned the French Revolution was 
son to oppressors, an example to the oppress- the same with that from which the Amcri- 
ed, and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind, can Revolution had sprung. — Taxation of 
Yes! with the smiles of benignant Providence the People withouc their consent. For near- 
the splendor and prosperity of these happy U- ly two centuries the Kings of France had 
nited States have illu s trated the blessings of been accustomed to levy taxes upon the Peo- 
their Government, and, we may humbly hope, pie by Royal Ordinances. But it was ne- 
have rejoiced the departed souls of its found- cessary that these Ordinances should be reg- 
ers. For the past your fathers and you have istered in the Parliaments or Judicial Tribu- 
been responsible. The charge of the future nals; and these Parliaments claimed the right 
devolves upon you and upon your children.— - of remonstrating against them, and BOme- 
The vestal fire of freedom is in your custody, times refused the registry of them itself. The 
May the souls of its departed founders never members of the Parliaments held their ofEcos. 



by purchase, bu" were appointed I y the King 1 , 
and were subject to banishment or imprison- 
ment, at his pleasure. Louis thu Fifteenth 
towards the close of his reign, had abolished 
the Parliamen s, but they had been restored 
at the accession of his successor. 

The finances t f the Kingdom were in ex- 
treme disorder. The minister, orContioller 
General, De Calonne, after attempting various 
projects for obtaining the supplies, »he amount 
and need of which he was with lavish hand 
daily increasing, bethought himself, at last, of 
calling for the counsel of others. lie pre- 
vailedupon the Kinglo convoke, nottheStates 
General, but an Assembly of Notables. There 
was something ridiculous in t >e verv name 
by which this meeting was called, but it con- 
fcisted of a. selection from all the Grandees 
and Dignitaries of the Kingdom. The two 
brothe s of the King — all the Princes of the 
blood. Archbishops and Bishops, Dukes and 
Peers — The Chancellor and (''residing Mem- 
beisoftiie Parliaments — distinguished Mem- 
bers of the Noblesse, the .Mayors and Chief 
Magistrates of a few of tiie principal cities of 
the Kingdom, constitued this Assembly. It 
was a representation of every interest but that 
of the People. They were appointed by the 
the King — were members of the highest Ar- 
istocracy, and were assembled with the de- 
sign tliat their deliberations should be confin- 
ed exclusively to the subject submitted to their 
consideration by the Minister. There were 
certain plans devised by him for replenishing 
the insolvent Treasury, by assessment upon 
the privi'eged classes, the very Princes, 
Nobles, Ecclesiastics, and Magistrates ex- 
clusively represented in the Assembly it- 
self. 

Of this meeting the Marquis de Lafayette 
was a member. It was held in February, 
1787, and terminated in the overthrow and 
banishment of the Minister by whom it had 
been convened. In the fiscal concerns which 
absorbed the care and attention of others, La- 
fayette took comparatively little interest. — 
His views were more comprehensive. 

The Assembly consisted of one hundred 
and thirty-seven persons, and divided itself 
into seven sections or bureaux, each presided 
by a Prince of the blood, Lafayette was al- 
lotted to the division under the Presidency of 
the Count d'Artois, the younger brother of the 
King, and since known aa Charles the 
Tenth. The propositions made by Lafayette 
were — 

1. The suppression of Lettrea de Cachet, 



and the abolition of all arbitrary imprisot 
ment. 

2. Theestablishment of a religious toleration! 
ind the restoration of the Protestants to theij 
■civil rights. 

3. The con vocation of a National Assemblj 
representing the People of France — Personal 
Liberty — Religious Liberty — and a Repre- 
sentative Assembly of the People, 'i hese 
were his demands. 

The first and second of them produced, per- 
haps, at the lime, no deep impression upon 
the Assembly, nor upon the public. Arbrita- 
ry imprisonment, and the religious persecu- 
tion of the Protestants had become universal- 
ly odious. They were worn-out instrument j 
even in the hands of those who wielded themp 
There was none to defend them. 

Hut the demand for a National Assembly 
startled the prince at the head of the Bureau,), 
What! said the Count d'Artois, do yon aski 
for the States General! — Yes, 6ir, was thej 
answer of Lafayette, and for something yet] 
better. You desire, then replied the Prince, 
thai I should take in writing, and report to 
the King, that the motion to convolve the 
States General has been made by the Mar- 
quis de Lafayette] ,4 Yes,sir;" and the name 
of Lafayette was accordingly reported to the 
King. 

The Assembly of Notables was Dissolved 
— De Calonna was displaced and banished, 
and his successor undertook to raise the need- 
ed funds, by the authority of Royal Edicts. 
The war of litigation with the Parliaments 
r 'commenced, whi h terminated only with a 
positive promise that theStates General should 
be convoked. 

From that time a total revolution of Got 
ernment in France was in progress. It has 
been a solemn, a sublime, often a most pain- 
ful, and yet, in the contemplation of great re- 
sults, a refreshing and cheering contempla- 
tion. I cannot follow it in its overwhelming 
multitude of details, even as connected with 
the Life and Character of Lafayette. A se- 
cond Assembly of Notables succeeded the first; 
and then ;m Assembly of the States 
General, first to deliberate in separate orders 
of Clergy, Nobility, and Third Estate; but, 
finally, constituting itself a National Assem- 
bly, and forming a Constitution of limited 
Monarchy, with an hereditary Royal Execu- 
tive, and a Legislature in a single Assembly 
representing the People. 

Lafayette was a member of the States 
General firtt awembled. Their meetinf 



was signalized by a struggle between the 
»everal orders of which they were compo- 
led, which resulted in breaking them all 
down into «roe National Assembly. 

The convocation of the States General 
bad, in one respect, operated, in the pro- 
gress of the French Revolution like the 
Declaration of Independence in that of 
North America. It had changed the ques- 
tion in controversy. It was, on the part 
of the King of France, a concession that 
be had no lawful power to tax the People 
without their consent. The States Gen- 
sral, therefore, met with this admission al- 
ready conceded by the King, In the A- 
merican conflict'the British Government 
aeveryielded the concession. They un- 
lertook to maintain their supposed right 
sf arbitrary taxation by force; and then 
the People of the Colonies renounced all 
:ommunity of Government, not only with 
;he King and Parliament, but with the 
British Nation. They reconstructed the 
abric of Government for themselves, and 
leld the people of Britain as foreigners — 
riends in peace— enemies jn war. 

The concession by Louis XVI. implied 
n the convocation of t'ue States General, 
vas a virtual surrender of absolute power 
—an acknowledgement that, as exercised 
»y himself and his p redecessors, it had been 
isnrped. It',vas,in substance, an abdica- 
ion of his crown. There was no power 
nhich he exercised as King of France, the 
awfulnr ss of which was not contestable 
in the. same principle which denied him 
k € r ight of taxation. When the Assem- 
'l* of theStatesGeneral met at Versailles, 
[n May, 1789 there was but a shadow of 
the royal authority left. They felt that 
the power of the Nation was in their hands 
and they were not sparing in the use of it. 
The Representatives of the Third Estate* 
doubled in numbers to those of the clergy 
and the nobility, constituted themselves a 
National Assembly, and as a signal for the 
demolition of all privileged orders, refused 
to deliberate in separate Chambers, and 
thus compelled the Representatives of the 
Clergy and Nobility to merge their sepa- 
rate existence in the general mass, of the 
popular representation. 

Thus the edifice of society was to herecon- 
itructed in France as it had been in Ameri- 
:a. The King made a feeble attempt to over- 
iwe the Assembly, by calling regiments of 
roops to Versailles, and surrounding with 
hem the hall of their meeting. But there 
vas defection in the army itself, and even the 
>erson of the King soon ceased to be at his 
>wn disposal. On the 11th of July, 1789, 
u the midst of the fermentation which had 



succeeded the fall of the Monarchy, and while 
the Assembly was surrounded by armeJ sol- 
diers, Lafayette presented to them his Decla- 
ration of Rights — the first declaration of hu- 
man rights ever proclaimed in Europe. It 
was adopted, and become the basis of that 
which the Assembly promulgated with their 
Constitution. 

It was in this hemisphere, and in our own 
country, that all its principles has been im- 
bibed. At the very moment when the Decla- 
tion was presented, the convulsive struggle 
between the expiring Monarchy and the new- 
born but portentous anarchy of the Parisian 
populace was taking place. The Royal 
Palace and the Hall of the Assembly were 
surrounded wish troops, and insurrection was 
kindling at Paris. In the midst of the popu- 
lar commotion, a deputation of sixty mem- 
bers, with Lafayette at their head, was sent 
from the Assembly to tranquillize the Peo- 
ple of Paris, and that incident was the occa- 
sion of the institution of the National Guard 
throughout the Realm, and of the appoint- 
ment, with the approbation of the King, of 
Lafayette as the General Commander-in-chief. 

This event, without vacating his seat in 
the National Assembly, connected him at 
once with the military and the popular move- 
ment of the Revolution. The National 
Guard was the armed militia of the whole 
kingdom, embodied for the preservation of or- 
der, and the protection of persons and pro- 
perty, as well as for the establishment of 
the liberties of the People. In his double ca- 
pacity of Commander General of this force, 
and of a Representative in the Constituent 
Assembly, his career, for a period of more 
than three years, was beset with the moat im- 
minent dangers, and with difficulties Ueyond 
all human power to surmount 

The ancient Monarchy of France had crum- 
bled into ruins. A National Assembly , form- 
ed by an irregular Representation of Clergy, 
Nobles, and Third Estate, after melting at 
the fire of a revolution into one body, had 
transformed itself into a Constituent Assem- 
bly representing the People, had assumed the 
exercise of all the powers of Government, ex- 
torted from the hands of the King, and under- 
taken to form a Constitution for the French 
Nation, founded at once upon the theory of 
human rights, and upon the perservation of a 
royal hereditary crown upon the head of Louis 
the Sixteenth. Lafayette sincerely believed 
that such a system would not be absolutely 
incompatible with the nature ef things. A 



io 



hereditary Monarchy, surrounded by popular 
institutions, presented itselfto his imagination 
as a r-racticable form of government; nor is 
it certain that even to his last days he ever 
abandoned this persuasion. The element of 
hereditary monarchy in this Constitution was 
indeed not congenial with it. The proto- 
type from which the whole fabric had been 
drawn, had no such element in its composi- 
tion. A feeling of generosity, of compassion, 
of commiseration with the unfortuna'e prince 
then upon the throne, who had been his sover- 
eign, and for his ill-fated family mingled itself 
perhaps, unconsciously to himself, with his 
well-reasoned faith in the abstract principles of 
a republican creed. The total abolition of the 
monarchical feature undoubtedly belonged to 
his theory, but the family of Bourbon had still a 
strong hold on the affections cf the French 
People ; History had not made up a record 
favorable to the establishment of elective 
Kings — a strong Executive Head was abso- 
lutely necessary to curb the impetuosities of 
the People of France ; and the same doctrine 
that played upon the fancy, and crept upon 
the kind-hearted benevolence of Lafayette, 
was adopted by a large majority of the Nation- 
al Assembly, sanctioned by the suffrages of 
its most intelligent, virtuous, and patriotic 
members, and was finally embodied in that 
royal democracy, the result of their labors, 
sent forth to the world, under the guaranty of 
numberless oaths, as the Constitution of 
France for all aftertime. 

But, during the same period, after the first 
meeting of the States General, and while they 
were in actual conflict with the expiring en- 
ergies of the Crown, and with the exclusive 
privileges of the Clergy and Nobility, anoth- 
er portentious power had arisen, and entered 
with terrific activity into the controversies of 
the time. This was the power of popular in- 
surrection, organized by voluntary associations 
of clubs, and impelled to action by the muni- 
cipal authorities of the city of Paris. 

The first movements of the people in the 
state of insurrection took place on the 12th of 
July, 1789, and issued in the destruction of 
the Bastille, and in the murder of its Govern- 
or, and of several other persons, hung up at 
iamp posts, or torn to pieces by the frenzied 
multitude, without form of trial, and without 
shadow of guilt. 

The Bastille had long been odious as the 
place of confinement of persons arrested by ar- 
bitrary orders for offences against the Govern- 
ment, and its destruction was hailed by most 



of the friends of Liberty throughout the world 
as an act of patriotism and magnanimity on 
the part of the People. The brutal ferocity 
of the murders was overlooked and palliated 
in the glory of the achievinent of razing !o its 
foundations the execrated citadel of despotism. 
But, as the summary justice of insurrection 
can manifest itself only by destruction, the ex- 
ample once set became a precedent for a series 
of years for scenes so atrocious, and for butch- 
eries so merciless and horrible, that memory 
revolts at the task of recalling them to the 
mind. 

It would be impossible, within the compass 
pS this discourse, to follow the details of the 
French Revolution to the final dethronement 
of Loiis the Sixteenth, and the extinction of 
the Constitutional Monarchy of France, on 
the 10th cf Au gust, 1792. During that pe- 
riod, the tvv^ distinct Powers were in contin- 
ual operation—sometimes in concert with 
each other, sometimes at irreconcilable op- 
position. Of thete Powers, one was the Peo- 
ple of France, repi^sented by the Parisian 
populace in insurrection; the other was the 
People of France, represented successively by 
the Constituent Assembly, which formed the 
Constitution of 1791, and by the Legislative 
Assembly, elected to carry it into execution. 

The movements of the insurgent Power 
were occasionally convulsive and cruel, with- 
out mitigation or mercy. Guided by secret 
springs; prompted by vindictive and sanguin- 
ary ambition, directed by hands unseen to ob- 
jects of individual aggrandizement, its agen- 
cy fell like the thunderbolt, and swept like 
the whirlwind. 

The proceedings of the Assemblies were- 
deliberative and intellectual. They began 
by grasping at the whole power of the Mon- 
archy, and they finished by sinking under the- 
dictation of the Parisian populace. The Con- 
stituent Assembly numbered among its mem- 
bers many individuals of great ability, and of 
pure principles, but they were overawed and 
domineered by that other representation of 
the People of France, which through the in- 
strumentality of the Jacobin Club, and the 
Municipality of Paris, disconcerted the wis- 
dom of the wise, and scattered to the winds 
the counsels of the prudent. It was impos- 
sible that, under the perturbations of such a 
controlling power, a Constitution suited to 
the character and circumstances of the nation 
should be formed. 

Through the whole of this period, the 
part performed by Lafayette was without 



117 



parallel in history. The annals of the The Constitution was at length pro- 
human race exhibit no other instance of claimed, and the Constituent National 
a position comparablo for its unintcrmit- Assembly was dissolved. In advance of 
ted perils, its deep responsibilities, and by this event, the sublime spectacles of the 
its providential issues, with that which oc- Federation was exhibited on the 14th of 
cupies as Commander Gen-of the Nation- July, 1790, the first anniversary of the de- 
al Guard, and as a leading member of the struction of the Bastille. There was an 
Constituent Assembly. In the numerous ingenious and fanciful association of ideas 
insurrections of the people, he taved the in the selection of that day. The Bastille 
lives of multitudes devoted as victims, and was a State Prison, a massive structure, 
always at the most, imminent hazzard of which had stood four hundred years, every 
his own. On the 5th and 6th of October stone of which was saturated with sighs 
1769, he saved the lives of Louis the Six- and tears, and echoed the groans of four 
teeuth, and ofhisQ,ueen. He escaped, centuries of oppression. It was the very 
time after time, the daggers sharpened by type and emblem of the despotism which 
princely conspiracy on one hand, and by had so long weighed upon France. De- 
popular frenzy on the other. He witnes- molished from its summit to its foundation 
sed, too, without being able to prevent it, at the first shout of Freedom from the 
the butchery of Foulon before his eyes, People, what day could be more appropri- 
and the recking heart of Berthicr, torn ate than its anniversary for the day of sol- 
from his lifeless trunk, was held up in emn consecration of the new fabric of 
exulting triumph before him. On this oc- Government, founded upon the rights of 
casion, and on another, he threw up his manl 

commission as Commander of the Nation- I shall not describe the magnificent and 
al Guards; but who could have succeeded melancholy pageant of that day. It has 
him even with eo t ual power to restrain been done by abler hands, and in a style 
these volcanic excesses! At the earnest which could only be weakened and dilu- 
Bolicitation of those who well knew that ted by repetition.* The religious solem- 
his place could never be supplied, he re- nity of the mass was performed by a Pre- 
sumed and continued to command until the late, then eminent among the members of 
solemn proclamation of the Constitution, the Assembly and the dignitaries of the 
upon which he definitively laid it down, land; stiil eminent, after surviving the 
and retired to private life upon his estate whole circle ofsubsequent revolutions. No 
in Auvergne. longer a fatherof the Church, but amongst 




that hit spirit and co-operation is to be en upon this new Constitution for his lib. 

traced. It is in the principles which he crated country; and he and Louis the feix- 

proposed and infused into the system. As, teenth, and Lafayette and thirty thousand 

at thefirst Assembly ofNotables, his voice delegates from all the Confedera ed Na- 

bad been raised for the abolition of arbi- tional Guards of the Kingdom, in the pre- 

trary implovment, for the extinction of »encc of the Almighty God, and of five 

reli-ioos intolerance, and for the represen- hundred thousand of their countrymen, 

tation of the People, so, in the National took the oath of fidelity to the Nation to 

Assembly, besides the Declaration of the Constitution, and all, save the Mon- 

Rights, which formed the basis of the Con- arch himself, to the King. His correspon- 

ititution itself, he made or supported the ding oath was, of fidelity to discharge the 

motions for the establishment of trial by duties of his high office, and to the People, 

ury, for the gradual emancipation of Alas', and was it all false and hollow, 

daves, for the Freedom of the Press, for had these oaths no more substance than the 

he abolition of all titles of nobility, and breath that ushered them to the winds. 

■or the declaration of equality of all the It is impossible to look bac,v upon the 

:itizens, and the suppression of all the short and turbulent existence ot his royal 

irivilege.l orders, withoulexception of the democracy, to mark the frequent parox- 

»rinces of the royal family. Thus, while, y*™ of popularfrenzy by which it was as- 

« a legislator, he was spreading the prin- sailed, and the catastrophe by which it 

riplesofuniversal liberty over the whole perished and to believe that the vows oi 

ervice of the State, as Commander-in- all who swore to support it were sincere, 

rhief of the armed force of the Nation, ho But, as well might the sculptor of a blocu 

fas controlling, repressing, and mitiga- — — — 

ing, as far as it could be effected by hu- *Inthe Address to the young men>f Bo»too, v 

lan power, the excesses of the People. by Edward Ererott. 



of marble, after exhausting hi* genius and disguise,, the design to revolutionize all E'u- 
hie art in giving it a beautiful human form, rope v and had emissaries in every eowntry, 
cell God to witness that it shall perform openly or secretly preaching the dcrcSrineof 
all the functions of animal life, as the Con- 
stituent Assembly of France could pledge 
the faith of its members that their royal 



insurrection against all established Govern- 
ments. Louis the Sixteenth, and his Queen 
an Austrian Princess, sister to the Emperor 
Leopold, were in secret negotiation with the 
Austrian Government for the rescue of the 
King and royal family of Prance from the 
dangers with which they were so incessantly 
beset. In the Electorate of Treves, apart 
of the Germanic Empire, the emigrants from 

France were assembling, with indications of 
tive power, all concentrated in a single a desi to entet France in ho8tile ft 

Assembly, was an incongruity still more effect a counter revolution; and the brothers 



democracy Bhould work as a permanent or- 
ganized form of government. Tbo Dec- 
laration of Rights contained all the prin- 
ciples essential to freedom. The frame 
of government was radically and irrepara- 
bly defective. The hereditary Royal Ex- 
ecutive was itself an inconsistency with 
the Declaration of Rights. The Legisla- 



glaring. These were both departures 
from the system of organization which 



of the King, assuming a position atCoblentx, 



Lafayette had witnes»ed in the American on the borders of their country, were holding 



Constitution: neither of them was approv- 
ed by Lafayette. In deference to the pre- 



councils, the object of which was to march 
in arms to Paris, to release the King from 



vailing opinions and prejudices of the captivity, pnd to restore the ancient Monir- 



timea, he acquiesced in them, and he was 
destined to incur the most imminent haz- 
zards of his life, and to make the sacrifice 
of all that gives value to life itself, in 
faithful adherence to the Constitution 
which he had sworn to support. 

Shortly after his resignation, as Com- 
mander General of the National Guards. 
the friends of liberty and order presented 



chy to the dominion of absolute Power. 

The King, who, even before hi* forced ac- 
ceptance of the Constitution of $791, had 
made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from 
his palace prison, was, in April 1792, re- 
duced to the humiliating necessity of declar- 
ing war against the very Sovereigns who 
were arming their Nations to rescue him from. 



him as a candidate for election as Mayor his revolted subjects. Three armies, each. o£" 



of Paris; but he had a competitor in the 
person of Pethion, more suited to the par- 
ty, pursuing with inexorable rancor the 
abolition of the Monarchy and the de- 
struction of the King ; and, what may seem 
scarcely credible, the remnant of the par- 



fifty thousand men, were levied to meet the 
emergencies of this war,, and were placed un- 
der the command ©f Luckner,. Rochambe&u, 
and Lafayette. Aa he passed through Paris 
to go and take the command of his army, he 



I u- l :*mi au ?• L nV appeared before the Legislative Assembly.the 

ty which still adhered to the King himself, _ ' K . , *...,-,., ,. •> 



und, above all the Queen, favored the e- 
loction of the Jacobin Pethion, in prefer- 
ence to that of Lafayette. They were, 
too fatally for themselves, successful. 
From the first meeting of the Legislative 



President of which, in addressing him, said 
that the Nation would oppose to their ene- 
mies the Constitution and Lafayette. 

But the enemies to the Constitution were 
within the walls. At thi» distance of time, 



Assembly, under the Constitution of 1791, when most of the men, and many of the pas- 
the destruction of the King and of the Mon- eionsof those days, have passed away, when 
archy, and the establishment of a Republic, the French Revolution and its results, should 
by means of the popular passions and of pop- be regarded with the searching eye of philo- 
alar violence, were the deliberate purposes of eophical speculation, as lessons of experience 
its leading members. The spirit with which to after ages, may it even now be permitted 
the Revolution had been pursued, from the to remark how much the virtues and the 
tame of the destruction of the Bastille, had crimes of men, in times of political convul- 
caused the emigration of great numbers of sion, are modified and characterized by the 
the Nobility and Clergy; and, among them, of circumstances in which they are placed? The 
the two brothers of Louis the Sixteenth, and great actors of the tremendous scenes of revo- 
of several other Princes of h ; s blood. They lution of those times were men educated in 
had applied to all the other great Monarchies schools of high civilization, and in the humane 
•f Europe for assistance to uphold or restore and benevolent precepts of the Christian ra- 
the crumbling Monarchy of France. The ligion. A small portion of them were vi- 
French Reformers themselves, in the he:it of cious and depraved; but the great majority 
rteeir political fanaticism, avowed, without were wound up to madness by that war • 



21 

iwhflitting interests and absorbing passions, »t the bar of the Assembly, repeated hie de- 

;nkindled by a great convulsion of the social nunciation of the Club, and took measures for 

lyetem. It has been said, by a great mas- suppressing their meetings by force. He 

er of human nature — proposed also to the King himself to furnish 

.. t . , ,, . , „„,„„„„„„ him with means of withdrawing with his 

l In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man " . . , . „„ 

'As modest stillness and humility ; fam.ly to Comp.egne, where he would have 

♦But when the blast of war blows in your ears, been out of the reach ot that ferocious and 
'Then imitate the action of the tger." blood-thirsty multitude. The Assembly, by 

Too faithfully did the People of France, a great majority of votes, sustained the prin- 
ind the leaders of their factions, in that war ciples of his letter, but the King declined his 
if all the political elements, obey that injunc- proffered assistance to enable him to with- 
;ion. Who, that lived in that day, can re- draw from Paris: and of those upon whom he 
member^ who, since born, can read, or bear called to march with him, and shut up the 
lobe told, the horrors of the 20th of June, hall where the Jacobins held their meeting, 
ihe 1 0th of Aug. the 2, and 3 of Se.^. 1792, of not more than thirteen persons presented 
the31stof May, 1793, and of a multitude of themselves at the appointed time, 
others, during which, in dreadful succession. jj e returned to his army, and became 
the murderers of one day were the victims of thenceforth the special object of Jacobin re- 
the next, until that, when the insurgent pop- ge ntment and revenge. On the cth of Au- 
ulace themselves were shot down by thou- g USt , on a preliminary measure to the inten- 
sands, in the very streets of Pa; is, by the ded insurrection of the 10th, the question was 
military legions of the Convention, and the ta k en) after several days of debate, upon a 
rising fortune and genius of Napoleon Bona- f orma i mot ion that he should be put in accusa- 
partel Who can remember, or read, or hear, tion and tried. The last remnant of fres- 
of all this, without shuddering at the sight of <j om m t i iat Assern ly was then seen by the 
man, his fellow creature, in the drunkenness vote ,,p n nominal appeal, or yeas and nays, 
of poli'ical frenzy, degrading himself beneath ; n wljicn f our hundred and forty-six votes- 
ithe condition of the wild beast of the were f or rejecting the charge, and only two- 
desert? and who, but with a feeling of deep hundred and twenty-four for sustaining it. 
(mortification, can reflect, that the rational Two days a r ter, the Tuilleries were stormed 
and immortal being, to the race of which he Dy popular insurrection. The unfortunate 
himself belongs, should, even in his most King was compelled to seek refuge, with his 
palmy state of intellectual cultivation, be ca- f am jty, in the Hall of the Legislative As- 
-pable of this self-transformation to brutality? S embly, and escaped from being torn to pieces 
In this dissolution of all the moral ele- D y an infuriated multitude, only to pass from 
iments which regulate the conduct of men in j lis pa lacJ to the prison, in his way to the 
their social condition — in this monstrous, g ca fTolu- 

.and scarcely conceivable spectacle of a King „,,. , . -. ,• , ,, „„ ■ 

...... • , x- • • I his revolution, thus accomplished, anrn- 

at the head of a mighty Nation, in secret ,.,..,., .• .i n . „.„^„. 

... Z,. . " J . . ' . . hilated the Constitution, the Government, 

league with theenemies against whom he has , , . . . , T ,. .. , > 

, . , . . .,. & , r- t • i and the cause tor which Lafayette had con- 

proclatmed himself at war. and of a Legisla- , , „,, „ , ,. & , ,. ■■ „ 

, , '. , r . .".„ tended. IhePeopleot France, by their ac- 

ture conspiring to destroy the King and Con- . .. ., , .■ „ , 

L .. V l- . .i . it ■ quiescence, a great portion of them by direct 

stitution to which they have sworn allegi- n , ? , , , ,, , 

, . t £• i • approval, confirmed and sanctioned the ooo- 

.ance and support, Lafayette alone is seen to ,. . - ., , T , n ^, ■ i 

..' ' ' . • ,.. . ,, htion of the Monarchy. 1 he armies and 

preserve his fidelity to the King, to the Con- , . , , ,.. ■ . . • 

r ..» . , . , •' their commanders took the same victorious 

stitution, and to his country. ., , ,. ■ . . , , 

J side: not a show of resistance wa* made to 

"Unshaken, unreduced, unterrified, t h e revolutionary torrent, not an arm was tif- 

"Uis loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal." ted tQ regtorc t}je faUen Monarcll t0 his 

On the 10th of June, 1792, four days be- throne, uor even to rescue or protect his per- 

fore the first violation of the Palace of the Tuil- son from the fury of his inexorable foes. La- 

ieries by the populace of Paris, at the insti- fayette himself would have marched to Paris 

gation of the Jacobins, Lafayette, in a Utter with his army, for the defence of the Cousti- 

to the Legislative Assembly, had denounced tution, but in this disposition he was not Bec- 

the Jacobin Club, and called upon the As- onded by hi3 tro> h. After ascertaining that 

■sembly to suppress them. He afterwards the effort would be vain, and after arresting 

repaired to Paris in person, presented himself at Sedan the members of the Deputation from 



~~ 



the Legislative Assembly, sent, after their 
own subjugation, to arrest him; he determin- 
ed, as the only expedient left him to save his 
honor and his principles - , to withdraw both 
from the army and the country, to pass into a 
neutral territory, and thence into these United 
States, the country of his early adoption and 
his fond partiality, where he was sure of find- 
ing a safe asylum, and of meeting a cordial 
welcome. 

But his destiny had reserved him for other 
and severer trials. We have seen him strug- 
gling for the support of principles, against 
the violence of raging factions, and the fick- 
leness of the multitude, we are now to behold 
him in the hands of the hereditary rulers of 
mankind: and to witness the nature of their 
tender mercies to him. 

It was in the neutral territory of Liege 
that he, together with his companions, Latour 
Maubourg, Bureau de Puzy, and Alexandre 
Lameth, was taken by Austnans, and trans- 
ferred to Prussian guards. Under the cir- 
cumstances of the case, lie could not, by the 
principles of the laws of Nations, be treated 
even as a prisoner of war. He Was treated 
as a prisoner of State. Prisoners of State in 
the Monarchies of Europe are always presum- 
ed guilty, and are treated as if entitled as lit- 
tle to mercy as to justice. Lafayette was im- 
mured in dungeons, first at Wesel, then at 
Magdeburg, and, finally, at OlmutZ, in Mora- 
via. By what right! By none known a- 
mong men. By what authority ! That has 
never been avowed. For what cause! None 
has ever been assigned. Taken by Austrian 
soldiers upon a neutral teritory, handed over 
to Prussian jailers; and, when Frederick 
William of Prussia abandoned his Austrian 
ally, and made his seperate peace with re- 
publican France, he transferred his illustri- 
ous prisoner to the Austrians, from whom he 
bad received him, that lie might be deprived 
of the blessing of regaining liis liberty, even 
from the hands of Pence. Five years was 
the duration of this imprisonment, aggravat- 
ed by every indignity that could make op- 
pression bitter. That it was intended as im- 
prisonment tor life, was not only freely avow- 
ed, but significantly made known to him by 
his jailers ; and while, with affected precau- 
tion, the means of terminating his sufferings 
by his own act were removed from him, the 
barbarity, of ill usage, of unwholesome food, 
and of a pestiferous atmosphere, was applied 
with inexorable rigor, as if to ab.idgethe 
days which, at the same time, were rendered 
&n far as possible insupportable to himself. 



Neither the generoua sympathies of the 
gallant soldier, General Fitzpatrick, in the 
British House of Commons, nor the personal 
solicitation of Washington, President of the 
United States, speaking with the voice of a 
grateful Nation, nor the persuasive accents of 
domestic and conjugal affection, imploring 
the Monarch of Austria for the release of La- 
fayette, could avail. The unsophisticated 
feeling of generous nature in the liearts of 
men, at this outrage upon justice and humani- 
ty, was manifested in another form. Two 
individuals, private citizens, one, of the U. 
States of America, Francis linger, the other, 
a native of the Electorate of Hanover, Doctor 
Erick Bolmann, undertook, at the imminent 
hazard of their lives, to supply means for his 
escape from prison, and their personal aid to 
its accomplishment. Their design was form- 
ed with great address, pursued with i.ntiring 
perseverance, and executed with undaunted 
intrepidity. It was frustrated by accidents 
beyond the control of human sagacity. 

To his persecutions, however, the hand of 
a wise and just Providence had, in its own 
time, and in its own way, prepared a termina- 
tion. The hands of the Emperor Francis, 
tied by mysterious and invisible bands against 
the indulgence of mercy to the tears of a more 
than heroic wife, were loosened by the more 
prevailing eloquence, or, rather, were severed 
by the conquering sword of Napoleon Bona- 
parte, acting under instructions f. om the Exe- 
cutive Directory, then swaying the destiniet 
of France. 

Lafayette and his fellow-suffers were 6till 
under the sentence of proscription issued by 
the faction which had d stroyed the Constitu- 
tion of 1701, and murdered the ill-fated Louis 
and his Queen. But revolution had followed 
upon revolution since the downfall of the Mon- 
archy, <n the IGth of August, 1702. The 
Federative Republicans, of the Gironde had 
been butchered by the Jacobin Republicans 
of the Mountain. The Mountain had been 
subjugated by the Municipality of Paris, and 
the sections of Paris, by a reorganization of 
parties in the National Convention, and with 
aid from the armies. Brissot and his federal 
associates. Danton and his party, Robespierre 
and h ; s subal crn demons, had successively 
perished, each by the measure applied to them- 
selves which they had meted out to others ; 
and as no experiment of political empiricism 
was to be omitted in the medley of the French 
Revolutions, the hereditary Executive, with 
a single Legislative Assembly, was succeed- 
ed by a Constitution with a Legislature in 



two branches, and a five headed Executive, 
sligible, annually one-fifth, by their concurrent 
votes, and bearing the name of a Directory. 
This was Ihe Government at whose instance 
Lafayette was finally liberated from the dun- 
geon of Olmutz. 

But, while this Directory were shaking to 
their deepest foundations all the Monarchies 
of Europe ; while they were stripping Austria, 
the most potent of them all, piecemeal of her 
territories; while they were imposing upon 
her the most humiliating conditions of peace, 
and bursting open her dungeons to restore 
their illustrious countryman to the light of day 
ind the blessing of personal freedom, they 
were themselves exploding by interna) com- 
bustion, divided into two factions, each con- 
spiring the destruction of the other. Lafay- 
2tte received his freedom, only to see the 
two members of the D. rectory who had taken 
the warmest interest in effecting his libera- 
tion, outlawed and proscribed by their col- 
leagues : one of them, C imot. a fugitive from 
(lis country, lurking in banishment to escape 
pursuit ; and the other, Barthelemy, deported, 
with fifty members of the Legislative Assem- 
)ly, without form of trial, or even of legal 
process, to the pestilential climate of Guiana. 
A.I1 this was done with the approbation, ex- 
pressed in the most unqualified terms, of Na- 
poleon, and with co-operation of his army. — 
Upon being informed of the success of this 
Pride's purge, he wrote to the Directory that 
fie had with hii.i one hundred thousand men, 
ipon whom they might rely to cause to be re- 
spected all the measures that they should take 
to establish liberty upon solid foundations. 

Two years afterwards, another revolution, 
directly accomplished by Napoleon himself, 
demolished the D rectory, the Constitution 
of the two Councils,and the solid liberty ,to ihe 
support of which the hundred thousand men 
had been pledged, and introduced another 
Constitution, with Bonaparte himself for its 
Executive Head, as the first of three Con- 
suls, for five years. 

In the interval between these who revolu- 
tions, Lafayette resided for about two years, 
first in the Danish Territory of Holstein, 
tnd, afterwards, at Utrecht, in the Batavian 
Republic. Neither of them had been effect- 
ed by means or in a manner which could pos- 
sibly meet his approbation. But the Consu- 
lar Government commenced with broad pro- 
fessions of republican principles, on the faith 
i)f which he returned to France, and for a se- 



rieg of years resided in privacy and retirement 
upon his estate of La Grange. Here, in the 
cultivation of his farm, and the enjoyment of 
domestic felicity, embittered only by the loss, 
in 1S07, of that angel upon earth, the part- 
ner of all the vicissitudes of his life, he em- 
ployed his time, and witnessed the upward 
flight and downward fall of the soldier and 
sport of fortune, Napoleon Boneparte. He had 
soon perceived the hollowness of the Consular 
professions of pure republican principles, and 
withheld himself from all participation in the 
Government. In 1802, he was elected f a 
member of the General Council of the Depart- 
ment of Upper Loire, and, in declining the 
appointment, took occasion to present a re- 
view of his preceding life, and a pledge of his 
perseverance in the principles which he had 
previously sustained. • Far,' said he, '• from 
the scene of pubic affairs, and devoting my- 
'selfat last to the repose of private life, my 
' ardent wishes are, that external peace 
'should soon prove the fruit of those miracles 
'of glory which are even now surpassing the 
'prodigies of the precGeding campaigns, and 
'that internal peace should be consolidated up- 
'on the essential and invariable foundations 
'of true liberty. Happy that twenty-three 
•years of vicissitudes in my fortune, and of 
'constancy to my principles, authorize me to 
'repeat, that, if a nation, to recover its rights, 
♦needs only the will, they can only be pre- 
'served by inflexible fidelity to its obliga- 
tions." 

When the First Consulate for five years 
was invented as one of the steps ot the lad- 
der of Napoleon's ambition, he suffered Si- 
eyes, the member of the Directory whom he 
had used asj an' instrument for casting off 
that worse than worthless institution, to 
prepare another Constitution, of which he 
took as much as suited his purpose, and con- 
signed the rest to oblivion. One of the 
wheels of this new political engine was a con- 
servative Senate, forming the Peerage to sus- 
tain the Executive Head. This body it was 
the interest and the policy of Napoleon tocon- 
ciliate, and he filled it with men who, through 
all the previous stages of the Revolution, had 
acquired and maintained the highest respect- 
ability of character. Lafayette was urged 
with great earnestness, by Napoleon himself. 
to take a seat, in this Senate; but, after several 
conferences with the First coasul, in which he 
ascertained the extent of his designs, he per- 
emptorily declined. His answer to the Mir;- 



41 



wter of War tempered his refusal with a gen* 
orous and delicate compliment, alluding at 
the same time to the position which the con- 
sistency of his character made it his duty to 
occupy. To the First Consul himself, in 
terms equally candid and explicit, he said; 
"that from the direction which public affairs 
'were taking, what he already saw, and what 
'it was easy to foresee, it did not seem suita- 
'ule to his character to enter into an order of 
'things contrary to his principles, and in 
'which he would have to contend without suc- 
'cess, as without public utility, against a man 
'to whom he was indebted for great obliga- 
tions." 

Not long afterwards, when all republican 
principle was so utterly prostrated that he 
was summoned to vote on the question wheth- 
er the citizen Napoleon Bonaparte should be 
Consul for life, Lafayette added to his vote the 
following comment, "I cannot vote for such 
i Magistracy until the public liberty shall 
have bevn sufficiently guarantied; and in that 
event I vote for Napoleon Bonaparte." 

He wrote at the same time to the First 
Consul a letter explanatory of his vote, which 
no Republican will now read without recog- 
nising the image of inordinate and triumphant 
ambition cowering under the rebuke of disin- 
terested virtue. 

'•The 18th of Brumaire [said this letter] 
"saved France; and I felt myself recalled by 
'the liberal professions to which you had at- 
'tachad your honor. Since then, we have 
'seen in the Consular power that reparatory 
'dictatorship which, under theauspices of your 
'genious, has achieved to much; yet not so 
'much as will be the restoration of liberty. It 
'is impossible that you, General, the first of 
'that order of men who, to compare and seat 
'themselves, take in the compass of all ages, 
'that ijou should wish such a revolution — so 
'many victories, so muchb!ood, so many ca- 
lamities and prodigies, should have for the 
'world and for you no other result than an ar- 
bitrary Government. The French people 
'have to well known their rights ultimately to 
•forget them, but perhaps they are now better 
-prepared, than in the time of their efferves- 
'cence, to recover them usefully; and you, by 
'the force of your character, and of the public 
-confidence, by the superiority oftalents of your 
'position, of your fortune, may, by the re-estab- 
•lishment of liberty, surmount every danger 
and relieve every anxiety. I have, then no 
'other than patriotic and personal motives 
'for wishing you this last addition to your 



•glory — a permanent magistracy; but it is 
'due to the principles, the engagements, and 
'the actions of my whole life, to wait, before 
•giving my vote, until liberty shall have been 
•settled upon foundations woithy of the Na- 
'tion and of you. I hope, General, that you 
•will here find, as heretofore, that with the 
'perseverance of my political opinions are uni- 
•ted sincere good wishes personally to you, 
'and a profound sentiment of my obligations 
'to you." 

The writer of this letter, and he to whom 
it was addressed, have, each in his appropri- 
ate sphere, been instruments of transcendent 
power, in the hands of Providence, to shape 
the ends of its wisdom in the wonderful story 
of the French Revolution. In contemplating 
the part which each of them have acted upon 
that great theatre of human destiny, before 
the date of the letter, how strange was at 
that moment the relative position of the two 
individuals to each other, and to the world! La- 
fayette was the founder of the great move- 
ment then in progress for the establishment 
of freedom in France, and in the European 
world; but his agency had been all intellectu- 
al and moral. He had asser ed and proclaim- 
ed the principles. He had never violated, 
never betrayed them. Napoleon, a military 
adventurer, had vapored in proclamations, and 
had the froth of Jacobinism upon his lips; but 
his soul was at the point of his sword. The 
Revolution was to Lafayette the cause of hu- 
man kind; to Napoleon it was a mere ladder 
of ambition. 

Yet, at the time this letter was written, 
Lafayette, after a serious of immense sacrifi- 
ces and unparelleled sufferings, was a private 
citizen, called to account to the world for de- 
clining to vote for placing Napoleon at the 
head of the French nation, with arbitrary and 
indefinite power for life; and Napoleon, amid 
professions of unbounded devotion to liberty, 
was, in the face of mankind, ascending the 
steps of an herditary imperial and ro\ al throne. 
Such was tbeir relative position then; what is 
it now! Has history a lesson for mankind 
more instructive than the contrast and the 
parellel of their fortunes and their fate! 
Time and chance, and the finger of Provi- 
dence, which in every deviation from the path 
of justice, reserves or opens to itself an aven- 
ue of return, has brought each of these mighty 
men to a close of life,congenial to the character 
with which he travelled over its scenes. The 
Consul for life, the hereditary Emperor and 
King, expires a captive on a barren rock 



in the wilderness of a distant ocean — separa- most humiliating of the conditions impose 
ted from his imperial wife — separated from his upon the vanquished Nation, affected to hodT» 
son, who survives him only to pine away his it by Divine right, and to grant, as a special 
existence, and die at the moment of manhood, favor, a Charier, or Constitution, founded oh 
in the condition of an Austrian Prince. The the avowed principle that all the liberties of 
Apostle of Liberty survives, again to come the Nation were no more than gratuitous do- 
forward, the ever consistent champion of her nations of the King. 

cause, and, finally, to close his career in peace, These pretensions, with a corresponding 
a. republican, without reproach in death, aa he course of policy pursued by the reinstated 
had been without fear throughout life. Government of the Bourbons, and the dia- 

But Napoleon was to be the artificer of his regard of the national feelings and interests 
own fortunes, prosperous and adverse. He of France, with which Europe was remodell- 
was rising by the sword; by the sword he was ed at the Congress of Vienna, opened the way 
destined to fall. The counsels of wisdom for the return of Napoleon from Elba, within 
and of virtue fell forceless upon his ear, or a year from the time when he had been re- 
sunk into his heart only to kindle resentment legated there. He landed as a solitary ad - 
and hatred. He sought no further personal venturer, and the Nation ralied round him 
intercourse with Lafayette, and denied com- with rapture. He came with promises to the 
mon justice to his son, who had entered and Nation of freedom as well as of independence, 
distinguished himself in the army of Italy, The Allies of Vienna proclaimed against him 
and from whom he withheld the promotion a war of extermination, and reinvaded France 
justly due to his services. with armies exceeding in numbers a million of 

The career of glory, of fame, and of power, men. Lafayette had been courted by Na- 
of which the consulate for life was but the first polean upon his return. He was again urg- 
■tep, was often years' continuance, till it had ed to take a seat in the House of Peers, but 
reached its zenith; till the astonished eyes of peremptorily declined, from aversion to its 
mankind beheld the charity scholar of Brien- hereditary character. He had refused to re- 
ne, Emperor, King, and Protector of the Con- sume his title ofnobility, and protested against 
federation of the Rhine, banqueting at Dres- the Constitution of the Empire, and the ad- 
den.surrounded by a circle of tributary crowned ditional act entailing the imperial heredo- 
beads among whom was seen that very Francis tary Crown upon the family of Napoleon, 
of Austria, the keeper, in his Castle of Olmutz, But he offered himself as a candidate for elec- 
of the requblican Lafayette. And t upon that tion as a member of the popular Representa- 
day of the banueting at Dreslen, the star of tive Chamber of the Legislature, and was 
Napoleon culminated from the Equator. — unanimously chosen by the Electoral College 
Thence foward it was to descend with mo- of his Department to that station, 
tion far more rapid than when rising till it The battle of Waterloo was the last des- 
sank in endless night. Through that long perate struggle of Napoleon to recover his fal- 
period Lafayette remained in retirement al len fortunes, and its issue fixed his destiny 
La Grange. Silent amidst the deafening forever. He escaped almost alone from the 
shouts, of victory from Marengo, and Jena, field, and returned a fugative to Paris, projec- 
and Austerlitz, and Friedland, and Wagram, ting to dissolve by armed force the Legislative 
and Borodino — silent at the conflagration of Assembly, and, assuming a dictatorial power. 
Moscow; at the passage of the Beresina; at to levy a new army, and try the desperate 
the irretrievable discomfiture of Leipzig; at chances of another battle. This purpose was 
the capitulation at the gates of Paris, and defeated by the energy and promptitude of La- 
at the first restoration of the Bourbons, und- fayette. At this instance the Assembly adop- 
er the auspices of the inveterate enemies ted three resolutions, one of which declared 
of France — as 1 ttle could Lafayette par- them in permanent session, and denounced 
ticipate in the measures of that resto 
ration as in the usurpation of Napoleon. — 
Louis the Eighteenth was quartered upon the 



any attempt to dissolve them as a crime of 
high treason. 

After a feeble and fruitless attempt ofNa- 



French nation as the soldiers of the victori- poleon, through his brother Lucien, to obtain 

ous armies were quartered upon the inhabit- from the Assembly itself a temporary dicta- 

anta of Paris. torial power, he abdicated the Imperial Crown 

Yet Louis the Eighteenth, who held his in favor of his infant son ; but his abdication 

Grown as the giftoftheenquiriesof France, the could not relieve France from the deplora- 



ble condition to which he had reduced her. 
France, from the day of the battle of Water- 
loo, was at I he mercy of the allied Monarchs ; 
nnd,as the last act of their revenue, they gave 
tier again the Bourbons. France was con- 
strained to receive them. It was at the point 
of the bayonet, and resistance was of no avail. 
The Legislative Assembly appointed a Pro- 
visional Council of Government, and Com- 
missioners, ofwhom La*ayette was one, to 
negotiate with the allied armies then rapidly 
advancing upon Paris. 

The Allies manifested no disposition to 
negotiate. They closed the doors of their 
Hall upon the Representatives of the People of 
France. They reseated Louis the Eighteenth 
jpon his, throne. Against these measures 
Lafayette and the members of the Assembly 
:iad no means of resistance left, save a fear- 
less protest, to be remembered when the day 
)ffrcedom should return. 

From the time of this second restoration 
intil his death, Lafayette, who had declined 
Lccepting a seat in the hereditary Chamber 
)f Peers, and inflexibly refused to resume his 
;itle of nobility, though the Charter of Louis 
.he Eighteenth had restored them all, was al- 
nost constantly a member of the Chamber of 
Deputies, the popular branch of the Legisla- 
ure. More than once, however, the influ- 
mce of the Court was successful in defeating 
lis election. At one of these intervals, he 
smployed the leisure afforded him in revisiting 
,he United States. 

Forty years had elapsed since he had visit- 
id and taken leave of them, at the close of 
he Revolutionary War. The greater part 
»f the generation for and with whom he had 
ought his first fields, had passed away. Of 
he two millionsof souls to whose rescue from 
ippression he had crossed the Ocean in 1777, 
lot one in ten survived. But their places 
vere supplied by more than five times their 
lumbers, their descendants and successors. 
riie sentiment of gratitude and affection for 
uafayette, far from declining with the lapse 
if lime, quickened in spirit as it advanced in 
fears, and seemed to multiply with the in- 
Teasing numbers of the People. The Na- 
lon had never ceased to sympathize with his 
brtunes, and, in every vicissitude in his life, 
lad manifested the deepest interest in his 
velfire. He had occasionally expressed his 
ntention to visit once more the scone of his 
;arly achievements, and the country which 
lad requitted his services by a just estimate 
>f their value. In February, 1824,asolemn 



Legislative act, unanimously passed by both 
Houses of Congress, and approved by the 
President of the United States, charged the 
Chief Magistrate of the Nation, with the du- 
ty of communicating to him the assurances of 
grateful and affectionate attachment still 
cherished for him by the Government and 
People of the Unitrd States, and of tendering 
to him a national ship, with suitable accom- 
modation, for his conveyance to this country. 
Ten years have passed away since the 
occurrence of that event. Since then, the 
increase of population within the bordersofour 
Union, exceeds, in numbers, the whole ma?s 
of that infant community to whose liberties he 
had devoted, in early youth, his life and for- 
tune. His companions and fellow-soldiers of 
the war of Independence, of whom a scanty 
remnant still existed to join in the universal 
shout of welcome with which he landed upon 
our shores, have been since, in the ordinary 
course of nature, dropping away : pass but a 
few short years more, and not an individual 
of that generation with which he toiled and 
bled in the cause of human kind, upon hiB 
first appearance on the field of human action, 
will be left. The gallant officer, and distin- 
guished Representative of the People, at 
whose motion, upon this floor, the invitation 
of the Nation was given — the Chief Magis- 
trate by whom, in compliance with the will 
of the Legislature, it was tendered — the sur- 
viving Presidents of the United States, and 
their venerable compeer signers of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, who received him to 
the arms of private frendship, while mingling 
their voices in the chorus of public exultation 
and joy, are no longer here to shed the tear 
of sorrow upon his departure from this earthly 
scene. They all preceded him in the trans- 
lation to another, and, we trust, a happier 
world. The active, energetic manhood ofthe 
Nation, of whose infancy he had been the pro- 
tector and benefactor, and who, by the pro- 
tracted festivities of more than a year of jubi- 
lee, manifested to him their sense cf the ob- 
ligations for which they were indebted to him, 
are already descending into the vale of years. 
The children ofthe public schools, who throng- 
ed in double fih-s to pass in review before 
him to catch a glimpse of his countenance, 
and a smile from his eye, are now among the 
men and women of the land, rearing another 
generation ta envy their parents the joy 
which they can never share, of having seen 
and contributed to the glorious and triumphant 
reception of Lafayette. 



Upon his return to France, Lafayette was upon the right of suffrage, and the control of 



received with a welcome by his countrymen 
scarcely less enthusiastic than that with 
which he had been greeted in this country. — 
From his landing at Havre till his arrival at 
his residence at La Grange, was again one 



the Press, and even of the freedom of debate 
in the Legislature,the Opposition intheCham- 
ber of Deputies had dwindled down to not 
more than thirty members. But, under & 
rapid succession of incompetent, and unpopu- 



triumphal march, rendered but the more strik- hr Administrations, the mnjonty of the House 



ing by the interruptions and obstacles of an 
envious and jealous Government. Threats 
were not even spared of arresting him as a 
criminal, and holding him responsible for the 
spontaneous and irrepressible feelings mani- 
fested by the People in his favor. He was, 
very soon after his return, again elected a 
member of Deputies, and thenceforward, in 
that honorable and independent station, was 
the soul of hat steadfast and inflexible party 
which never ceased to defend, and was ulti- 



of Deputies had passed from the side of the 
Court to that of the People. In August, 
1S29, the King, confiding in his imaginary 
strength, reorganized his Ministry by the ap- 
pointment of men whose reputation was it- 
self a pledge of the violent and desperate 
designs in contemplation. At the first 
meeting of the Legislative Assembly, in 
an address to the King ; signed by two 
hundred and twenty one out of four hundred 
members, declared to him, in respectful terms, 



mately destined to vindicate the liberties of that a concurrence of sentiments between his 

ministers and the Nation was indispensable 
to the happiness of the People under his Go- 
vernment, and that this concurrence did not 
exist. He replied, that his determination was 
immovable, and dissolved the Assembly. A 
new election was held; and so odious through- 
out the Nation were the measures of the 
Court, that, of the two hundred and twenty- 
one members who had signed the address a- 



France. 

The Government of the Bourbons, from 
the time of their restoration, was a perpetual 
struggle to return to the Saturnian times of 
absolute power. For then the Sun and Moon 
stood still, not, as in the miracle of ancient 
story, for about a whole day, but for more 
than a whole century. Reseated upon their 
thrones, not, as the Stuarts had been in the 



„.„..i , , .1 , c erainst the Ministers, more than two hundred 
seventeenth century, by the voluntary act of 6 , • , _!, „ . . . . 
t , d i i- i u j ii j ,u were re-e ected 1 he Opposition had also 
the same People which had expelled them, . , » , . , 
. ». . •£•„ pc ■ T7- ,■ .-, {rained an accession of numbers in the remain- 
but by tne arms or foreign Kings and hostile r „ , _. , . 

armies, instead of aiming, by the liberality of In * P* rt of the Deputations, and it was appa- 
their Government, and by improving the con- r f nt tliat ' a ' ,on tlie ™ Ctm Z of t,,C As8 f mb] y- 
dition of their People, to make them forget tl»e Court party could rot be sustained. 
the humiliation of the yoke imposed upon At this crisis, Charles the Tenth, as if 
them, they labored, with unyielding tenacity, 
to make it more galling. They disarmed 
the National Guards ; they cramped ana crip- 
pled the right of suffrage in elections ; they 
fettered the freedom of the Press, and in their 
external policy lent themselves, willing instru- 
ments to crush the liberties of Spain and Ita- 
ly. The spirit of the Nation was curbed, 
but not subdued. The principles of freedom 



resolved to leave himself not the shadow 
of a pretext to complain of his expulsion 
from the throne, in defiance of the Char- 
ter, to the observance of which he had 
solemnly sworn, issued, at one and the 
same time, four Ordinances — the first of 
which suspended the liberty of the Pres* 
and prohibited the publication of all the 
daily newspapers and other periodical 
journals, but by license, revocable at plea- 



proclaimed in the Declaration of Rights of sure, and renewable every three months; 



1789 had taken too deep root to be extirpated. 
Charles the Tenth, by a gradual introduction 
into his councils of the most inveterate ad- 
herents to the anti-revolutionary Govern- 
ment, was preparing the way for the annihila- 
tion of the Charter and of the Legislative 
Representation of the People. In proportion 
as this plan approached to its maturity, the 
resistance of the Nation to its accomplish- 
ment, acquired consistency and organization. 
The time had been, when, by the restrictions 



the second annulled the election of Depu- 
ties, which had just taken place; the third 
changed the mode of election prescribed 
by Law, and reduced nearly by one half 
the numbers of the House of Deputies to 
be elected; and the fourth commanded 
the new elections to be held, and fixed a 
day for the meeting of the assembly to bo 
constituted. 

These Ordinances were the immediate 
occasion of the last Revolution of the 
three days, terminating in the final expul- 



iion of Charles the Tenth from the throne, nied that, in the experience of the French 
tnd of himself and his family from the ter- Revolutions, the cases in which popular 
ritory of France* This was effected by insurrection has been resorted to, for the 
in insurrection of the People of Paris, extinction of existing authority, have been 
which burst forth by spontaneous and un- so frequent, so unjustifiable in their cau- 
premeditaled movement, on the very day ses, so atrocious in their execution, so de- 
af the promulgation of the four Ordinan- structive to liberty in their consequences, 
ces. The first of these, the suppression that the friends of Freedom, who know 
of all the daily newspapers, seemed as if that she can exist only under the supre- 
studiously devised to provoke instantane- macy of the law, have sometimes felt them- 
ous resistance, and the conflict of physi- selves constrained to shrink from the de- 
cal force. Had Charles the Tenth issued velopment of abstract truth, in the dread 
a decree to shut up all the bakehouses of of the danger with which she is surroun- 
Paris, it could not have been more fatal ded. 

to his authority. The conductors of the In the Revolution of the three days of 
proscribed journals, by mutual engage- 1830, it was the steady, calm, but inflexi- 
mcnt among themselves, determined to ble adherence of Lafayette to this maxim 
consider the Ordinance as unlawful, null, which decided the fate of the Bourbons, 
and void, and this was to all classes of the After the struggles of the People had corn- 
People the signal of resistance. The pub- menced, and even while liberty and power 
lishers of two of the journals, summoned were grappling with each other for life or 
immediately before the judicial tribunal, death, the Deputies elect to the Legisla- 
were justified in their resistance by the tive Assembly, then at Paris, held several 
sentence of the court, pronouncing the meetings at the house of their colleague, 
Ordinance null and void. A Marshall of Lafitte.and elsewhere, at which the ques- 
France receives the conimandsof the King tion of resistance against the Ordinances 
to disperse, by force of arms, the popula- was warmly debated, and aversion to that 
tion of Paris; but the spontaneous resur- resistance by force was the sentiment pre- 
rection of the National Guard organizes dominant in the mind of a majority of the 
at once an army to defend the liberties of members. The hearts ofsome of the most 
the Nation. Lafayette is again called ardent patriots quailed within them at the 
from his retreat at La Grange, and, by the thought of a another overthrow of the 
unanimous voice of the People, confirmed Monarchy. All the horrible recollections 
by such Deputies of the Legislative As- of the reign of terror, the massacre of the 
sembly as were ; ble to meet for common prisons in September, the butcheries of 
consultation at that trying emergency, is the guillotine from year to year, the head- 
again placed at the head of the National less trunks, of Brissot, and Danton, and 
Guard as their Commander-in-chief. He Robespierre, and last, not least, the iron 
assumed the command on the second day of crown and sceptre of Napoleon himself, 
the conflict, and on the third Charles the rose in hideous succession before them, 
Tenth had ceased to reign. He formally and haunted their imaginations. They 
abdicated the Crown, and his son, the detested the Ordinances, but hoped that,. 
Dulfe d'Angouleme, renounced his pre- by negotiation and remonstrance with the 
tensions to the succession. But, hnmble recreant King, it might yet be possible to. 
imitatorsof Napoleon, even in submitting obtain the revocation of them, and the 
to their own degradation, they clung to substitution of a more liberal Ministry, 
the last grasp of hereditary sway, by This deliberation was not concluded till 
transmitting all their claim of dominion to Lafayette appeared among them. From that 
the orphan child of the Duke de Berri. moment the die was cast. They had till 

At an early stage of the Revolution of then no military leader. Louis Philippe. 
1789, Lafayette had declared it as a prin- of Orleans, had not then been seen among 
ciple that insurrection against tyrants was them. 

the most sacred of duties. He had bor- In all the changes of Government in 
rowed this sentiment, perhaps, from the France, from the first Assembly of NotableB, 
motto of .Jefferson — "Rebellion to tyrants to that day, there never had been an act of 
is obedience to God." The principle it- authority presenting' a cause for the fair and 
self is as sound as its enunciation is dar- • t a ppij C!l tion of the duly of resistance a- 
ing. Like alt general maxims, it is sus- „ ainst op p re83 i on , so clear, so unquestionable, 
ceptible of very dangerous abuses: the test * flacrrant a8 t | lis . The violations of the 
of its truth is exclusively in the correct- ° . „„, K . ».„, t t, 

ne.sof its application. As forming a part Charter were so gross and palpab e, that the 
of the political creed of Lafayette, it has most determ.ned Royalist could not deny 
been severely criticised ; nor can it be de- them. The mask had been laid aside, 1 to 



sword of despotism had been drawn, and the 
Bcabbard cast away. A King, openly for- 
sworn, had forfeited every claim to allegiance; 
and the only resource of the Nation against 
him was resistance by force. This was the 
opinion of Lafayette, and he declared himself 
ready to take the command of the National 
tJuard, should the wish of the People, already 
declared thus to place him at the head of this 
spontaneous movement, be confirmed by 
his colleagues of the Legislative Assembly. 
The appointment was accordingly conferred 
upon him, and the second day afterwards 
Charles the Tenth and his family were fugi- 
tives to a foreign land 

France was without a Government. She 
might then have constituted herself a Repub- 
lic; and 6uch was, undoubtedly, the aspiration 
of a very large portion of her population. — 
But with another, and yet larger portion of 
her PeopIe,the name of Republic was identified 
with the memory of Robespierre. It was held 
in execration; There was imminent danger, if 
not absolute certainty, that the attempt to or- 
ganize a Republic would have been the sig- 
nal for anew civil war. The name of a Re- 
public, too, was hateful to all the neighbors 
of France; to the Confederacy of Emperors 
and Kings, which had twice replaced the 
Bourbons upon the throne, and who might be 
propitiated under the disappointment and mor- 
tification of the result, by the retention of the 
aaiue of King, and the substitution of the 
semblance of a Bourbon for the reality, 

The People of France, like the Cardinal de 
Retz, more than two centuries before, wa,nted 
a descendant from Henry the Fourth, who 
.could speak the language of the Parisian pop- 
ulace, and who had known what it was to be 
a plebeian. They found him in the person of L. 
Philippe, of Orleans. Lafayette himself was 
compelled to compromise with his principles, 
purely and simply republican, and to accept 
him, first as Lieut. General of the Kingdom, 
and then as hereditary King There was, 
perhaps, in this determination, besides the 
motives which operated upon others, a consid- 
eration of disinterested delicacy, n hicli could 
be applicable only to himself. Jf the Repub- 
lic should be proclaimed, he knew that the 
Chief Magistracy could be delegated only to 
himself. It must have been a Chief Magis- 
tracy for life, which, at his age, could only 
have been for a short term of years. Inde- 
pendent of the extreme dangers ;md difficulties 
to himself, to his family, and to hisc untry,in 
which the position which he would have oc- 



cupied might have involved them, the inqui- 
ry could not escape his forecast, who upon 
his demise, could be his successor! and what 
must be the position occupied by him! If, at 
that moment, he had but spoken the word, he 
might have closed his car#er with a crown 
upon his head, and with a withering blast 
upon his name to the end of time. 

With the Duke of Orleans himself he used 
no concealment or disguise. When the 
Crown was offered to that Prince, and he 
looked to Lafayette for consultation, "You 
know (said he) that lam n/ ike American 
school, and partial to the Constitution of the 
United States." So, it seems, was Louis 
Philippe. "I think with you," said he. "It 
is impossible to pass two years in the United 
States without being convinced that their Go- 
vernment is the best in the world. But do 
you think it suited to our present circumstan- 
ces and condition!" "No," replied Lafayette- 
"They require a Monarchy, surrounded by 
popular institutions." So thought, also, Lou- 
is Philippe; and he accepted the Crown un- 
der the conditions upon which it was tender- 
ed to him. 

Lafayette retained the command of the Nat'l 
Guard so long as it was essential to the settle- 
ment of the new order of things, on the basis ol 
orderand of freedom; 6olongas it was essentia] 
to control the stormyand excited passions of th< 
Parisian People, so long as it was necessary tt 
save the Ministers of the guilty but faller 
Monarch from the rash and revengeful resent 
ments of their conquerors. When this wai 
accomplished, and the People had been pre 
served from the calamity of shedding in peac< 
the blood of war, he once more resigned hi; 
command, retired in privacy to La Grange 
and resumed his post as a Deputy in the Lc 
giislative Assembly, which he continued t 
hold till the close of life. 

His station there was still at the head c 
the phalanx, supporters of liberal principles an 
©f constitutional freedom. In Spain, in Poi 
tugal, in Italy, and, above all, in Poland, th 
cause of Liberty has been struggling again: 
the hand of power, and, to the last hour of h 
life, they found in Lafayette a never-failii: 
friend and patron. 

In his last illness, the standing which 1 
held in the hearts of mankind was attested I 
the formal resolution of the House of Dep 
ties, sent to make inquiries concerning li 
condition: and, dying a6 he did full of yea 
and of glory, never, in the history of ma 
kind, has a private individual departed mo 



universally lamented by the whole generation 
i of men whom lie has left behind. 

Such, Lrgislators of the North American 
1 conjcderate. Union, was the life of Gilbert 
1 Motier de Lafayette, and the record of his 
I life is the delineation of his character. Con- 



by inspiration from above. He devoted him- 
self, his life, his fortune, hie hereditary honors, 
his towering ambition, his splendid hopes, 
all to the cause of liberty. He came to a- 
nother hemisphere to defend her. He be- 
came one of the most effective champions of 



eider him as one human being of one thousand our Independence, but, that once achieved he 



millions, his cotemporaries on the surface of 
the terraqueous globe. Among the thousand 
million- seek for an object of comparison with 
him ; assume for the standard of comparison, 
all the virtues which exalt the character of 
man above that of the brute creation ; take 
the ideal man, little lower than the angels ; 
mark the qualities of the mind and heart 



turned to hi?, own country, and henceforward 
took no part in the controversies which have 
divided us. J n the events of our Revolution, 
and in the forms of policy which we have 
adopted for the establishment and perpetua- 
tion of our freedom, Lafayette found the moBt 
perfect form of our government. He wished 
to add nothing to it. He would gladly have 



which entitle him to this station of pre-emi- abstracted nothing from it. Instead of the 
nence in the scale of created beings, and en- imaginary Republic of Plato, or the Utopia 
quire who that lived in the cightenth and of Sir. Thomas More, he took a practical ex- 
nineteenth centuries of the Christian a?ra, com- is'iing model, in actual operation here end 
bined in himself so many of those qualities, so never attempted or wished more than to ap- 
little alloyed with those which belong to that ply it faithfully to his own country. 
earthly venture of decay in which the immor- It was not even to Moses to enter the 
tal spirit is enclosed, as Lafayette. promised land ; but he saw it from the sum- 



Pronounce him one of the first men of bis 
age, and you have not yet done him justice. 
Try him by that test to which he sought in 



mit of Pisgah. It was not given to Lafay- 
ette to witness the consummation of his wish- 
es in the establishment of a Republic,, and 



vain to stimulate the vulgar and selfish spirit the extinction of all hereditary rule in France, 
of Napo'eon ; class him among the men who, His principles were in'advance of the a-oe-and 
to compare and seat themselves, must take hemisphere in which he lived. A Bourbon: 
in the compass of all ages; turn b.^ck your still reigns on the throne of France and it ie 
eyes upon the records of tune ; summon from not for us to scrutinize the title by which be 
the creation of the world to this day the reigns. The principles of elective and here- 
mighty dead of every age and of every clime ditary power, blended in reluctant union in 
— and where, among the race of merely mor- his person, like the red and white roses of 
tal men, shall one be found, who, as the bene- York and Lancaster, may postpone to after- 
factor of his kind, shall claim to take prece- time the last conflict to which they roust ul- 
timately come. The life of the Patriarch 
was not long enough for the developement of 
his whole political system. Its final accom- 
pl shment is in the womb of time. 

The anticipation of this event is the more 
certain, from the consideration that all the 
principles for which Lafayette contended were 
practical. He never indulged himself in wild 
and fanciful speculations. The principle of 
hereditary powerwas,in his opinion, the bane 



dence of Lafayette 1 

There have doubtless been, in all ages, 
men whose discoveries of inventions in the 
world of matter or of mind, have opened new 
avenues to the dominion of man over the ma- 
terial creation ; have increased his means or 
his faculties of enjoyment ; have raised him 
in nearer approximation to that hig ier and 
happier con lition, the object of his hopes and 
aspirations in his present state of existence, 

Lafayette discovered no new principle of of all republican liberty in Europe. Unable 
politics or of morals. He invented nothing to extinguish it in the revolution of 1830, eo 
in science. He disclosed no new phenome- far as concerned 'he Chief Magistrcy of the 



non in the laws of nature. Born and educa 
ted in the highest order of feudal nobility, 
under the most absolute Monarchy of Europe, 
in possession of an affluent fortune, and mas- 
ter of himself and of all his capabilities at 
the moment of attaining manhood, the prin- 
:iple of republican justice and of social equab- 
ly took possession of his heart and mind, as if vernmente 



Nation, Lafayette had the satisfaction of see- 
ing it abolished with reference to the Peer- 
age. An hereditary Crown stript of the sup- 
port which it may derive from an hereditary 
Peerage, however compitable with Asiatie 
despotism, is an anomaly in the hietory of the 
Christain world, and in the theory of free Go- 
There is no argument produci- 



ble against the existence of an hereditary predated at its true value throughout the civ- 
Peerage, but applies with aggravated weight ilized world. When the principle of heredi- 
against the transmission from sire to son, of tary dominion shall be extinguished in all the 
an hereditary Crown. The prejudices and institutions of France; when Government 
passions of the people of France rejected the shall no longer be considered as property, 
principles of inherited power, in every station Jransmissable from sire to son, but as a tru6t 
of public trust, excepting the first and high- committed for a limited time, and then to re- 
est of them all; but there they clung to it, as turn to the people whence it came; as a bur- 
did the Israelites of old to the savory deities densome duty to be discharged, and not as a 
of Egypt. reward, to be abused; whenaclaim, any claim. 

This is not the time or the place for a dis- to political power by inheritance shall, in the 
quisition upon the comparative merits, as a estimation of the whole French people, be 
•ystem of government, of a Repuolic, and a held as it is now is by the whole people of 
Monarchy surrounded by republican institu- the North American Union — then will be the 
tions. Upon this subject there is among us time of contemplating the character of Lafay- 
no diversity of opinion; and if it should take ette, not merely in the events of his life, but, 
the people of France another half century of in the full development of his intellectual con- 
internal andexteral war, of dazling and delu- ceptions, of his fervent aspirations, of the la- 
*ive glories, of unparalleled triumphs, bumi- bors and perils and sacrifices of his long; and 
liating reverses, and bitter disappointments, eventful career upon earth; and thenceforward, 
to settle it to their satsifacticn, the ultimate till the hour when the trump ofthe Archangel 
result can only bring them to the point where shall sound to announce that time shall be no 
Lafayette would have brought them, and to more, the name of Lafayette shall stand en- 
which he looked as a consummation devoutly rolled upon the annals of our race, high on the 
to be wished. list ofthe pure and disinterested benefactor* 

Then, too, and thm only, will be the time of mankind, 
when the character of Lafayette will be ap- 



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